NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND CARER LINK PROJECT 
The Carer Link Project was officially launched at an event held at Belford Golf Club on Wednesday 27th April 2005.
However, its origins lay in a suggestion from a carer following the introduction of the Northumberland Carers Strategy in 2001 which stated that what carers really wanted was contact with other carers.
A research paper was subsequently carried out to establish the personal needs of carers and a committed group of carers and professionals worked together to create the Carer Link Project.
Funding was obtained from a number of different sources to enable the idea to become the basis of a managed project.
The principle aim of the Project is to link experienced or former carers with inexperienced and / or struggling carers via telephone and / or e-mail contact for the purposes of support, information sharing and friendship.
The project focus was limited to Alnwick and Berwick districts where personal contact for carers is made even more difficult than in other areas of the county by rural isolation and transport difficulties.
Kate Whitehead was appointed as a part time co-ordinator on 1 December 2004. Working from Bondgate House, Alnwick Kate established all the necessary background documentation necessary for a project of this nature and prepared for its subsequent move to the Bell View Resource Centre, Belford.
The project became a registered charity and from 1 April 2005, when Jean Worth joined, employed two part-time co-ordinators at their Belford office. Our connection with Carer Link ended in March 2007.
The charity trustees administer the project but day to day line management of the staff is carried out by the Community Council. Funding is secure until September 2006 by which time it is envisaged that not only will the Project have proved successful in its aim to link carers together, but that other supplementary aspects of the Project will be in place.
The project is carer led and the majority of the management committee are all volunteers.
Kate Whitehead and Jean Worth can be contacted at
Carer Link Project
Bell View Resource Centre
33 West Street
Belford
Northumberland
NE70 7QB
Tel: 01668 219951
Kate Whitehead Jean Worth
