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Age UK Exeter is Moving - March 2021

After over 30 years, on 8^th March 2021, Age UK Exeter will be moving from our Cowick Street Centre to our Sycamores building on Mount Pleasant Road. The financial impact of the pandemic and the fact that we have had to close our day services and café means that we can no longer afford to pay rent on a building that has lost its core purpose. The Sycamores building will be used as office space from which we will run the many community services we continue to provide. Our phone number will remain the same.

We are, of course, immensely saddened by what the closure of the Cowick Street centre has meant for the very many older people who used it. We hope that the building, which is owned by Exeter City Council, may continue to be used as a community resource of some kind by one or more organisations and that one day we may be able to return in some shape or form. We know local Councillors are keen for this to happen too and want to hear from organisations who may be interested in using all or part of the space. However, nothing has yet been secured.

Our move to Mount Pleasant by downsizing from two buildings to one will strengthen our finances and help us build again for the future. We would like to thank all our fantastic volunteers and dedicated staff, past and present, who have been associated with Cowick Street for the contribution they have made to the charity and to improving the lives of older people in Exeter.

We would also like to thank St Thomas for hosting us for so many years. We have met and got to know so many wonderful people over the 30 years we’ve been here and hopefully have been a force for good in the local community and beyond. We will, of course, be continuing to make a positive impact in the city from our Mount Pleasant base for the benefit of hundreds of local older people and their families.

Martyn Rogers

Chief Executive

New Government Lockdown Measures - January 2021

MESSAGE IN RESPONSE TO LATEST LOCKDOWN

In response to the latest government guidance, our Board of Trustees has taken the decision to close our Men in Sheds project and Dementia Carers group until further notice due to the increased risks of groups meeting together at this time. Our Men in Sheds shop in Paris Street is also closed.

All our community support services will, however, continue to provide older people in the city with the support and help they need during this extremely difficult time. These include our Enabling, Befriending and one to one Carer Support services, as well as our Wellbeing Exeter and Information and Advice services. Many of our interactions will revert from face to face to telephone contact in order to reduce risk. Our dedicated team of Enabling staff, instead of taking people shopping, will now shop for people to avoid the risk of crowded supermarkets and provide one to one company and support in settings that are safe to promote people’s mental wellbeing.  Our wonderful band of Volunteer Visitors, who make such a difference to the lives of so many older people who live alone, will now, in the main, keep in touch by phone rather than visits. All our staff and volunteers are issued with the necessary PPE to keep everyone safe and all activities are risk assessed and operate within appropriate guidelines.

We will keep the situation under review, but it is unlikely to change until the lockdown is eased.

Our thanks go to our staff and volunteers who are doing such a great job as we work towards a time when the restrictions can be lifted as the vaccine programme is rolled out.

Stay safe   

Martyn Rogers

CEO

Our quality marks

Age UK Exeter has achieved the Age UK Charity Quality Standard (CQS).  The CQS is externally assessed by quality assessment experts, SGS.

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