silvercord.co.uk

Policies

Mon, 15 May 2023 10:41:38 +0100

At Silver Cord we take our legal responsibilities seriously and our policies reflect this.

Our Faith

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 15:49:26 +0000

At Silver Cord, the Christian faith is central to who we are and what we do.

We believe that every person has unique value and must be treated with dignity, respect and compassion. We believe in a God who is wholly relational and that he created people in his likeness with an intrinsic need for connection with others and himself.

We seek to positively address the loneliness pandemic in the UK, in part by releasing the often-untapped potential of older people in the Church as befrienders. We are committed to pursuing this through gospel-centred partnerships with local churches and recovering God’s vision for intergenerational community life.

Psalm 68 says ‘God places the lonely in families’. We want to cheer on local churches to respond with pastoral sensitivity to the damaging effects of social exclusion by creating spaces in which everyone can belong, make friends and have the opportunity to understand how much God loves them.

And we have a particular passion to respond to society’s inherent ageism and the marginalisation of the oldest, often frailest, members of society, by restoring biblical honour - speaking hope and value into the ageing process.

Our Ethos

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 15:49:18 +0000

The ethos of Silver Cord is derived from our Christian faith, our purpose and mission, our core values and our commitment to seek the welfare of people in our local community.

It is our vision to “cherish the person, change the community” by providing practical support and friendship to people in the grips of isolation, declining mobility, material poverty, poor mental health or any other factor contributing to feelings of loneliness.

In particular, Silver Cord aims at:

Seeking to be distinctively Christian in our approach to the needs of any who use our services and our volunteers, by displaying a commitment to Jesus Christ and an intention to bring honour to God in all we do and all we are as people, and as an organisation. God is the author of life and death, and he has created each person to bear his image. Because of this, each person is intrinsically valuable to him, and every life matters. We are committed to expressing God’s love for every person, whether beneficiary or volunteer, from beginning to end, through acts of kindness and generosity, irrespective of their ethnic origin, their gender, their sexual orientation, their age, their religious/philosophical beliefs or their political persuasion. It is our ambition to provide excellent quality care at no cost to the recipient, wherever possible.
Seeking to be professional in all our working practices, setting clear goals, objectives and standards; providing good quality training to ensure that these can be achieved; maintaining clear, up-to-date working practices; providing and sustaining appropriate accountability processes; and creating a supportive, nurturing culture which allows every volunteer to grow in capability, capacity and confidence.
Seeking to put people first and at the centre of what we do by affirming the intrinsic value of every individual as being made in God’s image. This means we are committed to showing compassion for others, to acting with honesty and integrity in our dealings, to safeguarding the vulnerable, to serving others sacrificially and without expectation of personal gain, to respect the beliefs and values of others and to conducting ourselves with sensitivity to the impact of our words and actions on them, particularly where they do not share our beliefs.
Seeking to work in partnership with others who share our concern for the physical, emotional, psychological, material, relational and spiritual wellbeing of people in our community, and particularly those who may be experiencing loneliness and/or isolation. We will make every effort to partner with other churches, healthcare and service providers, professional agencies, residential and nursing homes, family members and community/voluntary groups. We will do this either in direct collaboration or by finding ways to reproduce or extend successful models of community engagement by sharing knowledge, information, experience and resources as generously as possible.
Seeking to be innovative and constantly learning. Every person we seek to serve is an individual with a complex mix of hopes and fears, life experiences, skills, beliefs and needs. We want to respond to each person in a way that best reflects their circumstances. We recognise that there will be situations that will stretch our capability and capacity. Therefore, we value the innovation and skills that our partners and our volunteers bring in helping to find positive, creative and innovative responses to these situations. We will welcome the ideas and suggestions of all involved to learn, and to improve what we offer.

Our Vision & Values

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:14:56 +0000

Isolation and loneliness amongst older people and vulnerable adults is profoundly damaging to their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being and to the community at large. This damage will increase as the proportion of older people increases.

Silver Cord exists to cherish the lonely and champion the role and place of older people in society. The ethos of Silver Cord is to place as much value on the latter years of life as society places on the former years and to encourage a sense of worth, belonging and hope in the individual.

We envision thriving intergenerational communities in which all ages feel equally welcomed, valued and recognised for their unique contributions.

We will advocate for a culture of honour for older people in society and grow a network of local churches, resourcing and supporting them to respond to the loneliness crisis through a befriending service.

Our CEO

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:13:58 +0000

Hi, my name is Debs Peyton (nee Fidler) and I am the founder and CEO of Silver Cord.

I am also privileged to be an ambassador for Faith in Later Life. I worked for Hope Community Church from 2010 - 2023, initially as a youth worker. In 2013 the role adapted to include community work with a specific focus on connecting with older people and those affected by loneliness and isolation – blame my grandad for my love of older people/films/furniture! He was my best friend growing up.

From 2016, I began a part-time degree in Third Age Mission and Ministry at Cliff College and began a full-time position as community worker at the church. My studies, which completed in 2022 have been instrumental in the developments with community activities over the years, fuelling the vision to restore a biblical culture of honour for older people in society, encourage intergenerational connections, and combat the loneliness pandemic by harnessing all the potential of the local church to display the hospitality of God in our communities.

Silver Cord befriending service began in 2017 (read more about it in history). My role is presently focussed on the development of Silver Cord and I love to share our story and learnings from my studies with other churches, conferences, groups and lectures at Cliff College. If you want to enquire about booking a talk, please click the button below.

I also love spending time with family and friends, watching films and live music and attending the occasional Comic-Con (geek alert).

Book a Talk

Our History

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:13:35 +0000

2010

Silver Cord's journey began in 2010 when Debs Fidler began as part-time youth worker at Hope Community Church, Mottram, Greater Manchester.

2013

By 2013 the new leaders at Hope Community Church recognised Debs love for older people and so changed her role to full-time youth and community worker. As a result Debs started the Mottram Monday Matinée – a weekly club to connect with older people. This new club included quizzes, sing-a-longs, chair aerobics, annual day trips, and intergenerational dance hall events. It was greeted with great enthusiasm and helped to reconnect those who were feeling lonely and isolated.

2015

The Monday Matinée club went from strength to strength and in 2015 the club won funding to build a retro-cinema set-up into the church hall. This was really strategic as the aim of the cinema club was to strengthen connections with older men, who are nationally the hardest group to engage with.

All-age films were shown at the Matinée during school holidays as a further way to bring young and old together.

At this time Debs also started the monthly Mobile Matinée, taking the films out on the road to three local care and residential homes. This helped to build relationships with residents as they enjoyed seeing films in their community lounges.

2016

By 2016 Debs knew that she would benefit from furthering her education and started her degree at Cliff College. She also began full-time community work.

2017

In 2017 Silver Cord began with volunteers from Hope Community Church and St Michael's Mottram. Debs started attending weekly Integrated Neighbourhood Services meetings at Hyde Police Station, which enabled her to respond to potential clients.

Silver Cord then began a further church partnership with Carmel Christian Centre in Denton. Encouragingly more volunteers were trained and Denise became the Denton Silver Cord coordinator.

At this point Debs oversaw the Longdendale area of Tameside with volunteers being matched with clients for face-to-face visits. Interestingly it was found that some clients by-passed the befriending service to attend church activity groups, but this seemed appropriate for them.

Church services (Silver Sundays) were also started at a care home in partnership with the Parish Church of Mottram, and Bible sessions began at a local social housing complex using the Pilgrims' Friend Society's resource "Brain and Soul Boosting".

2018

The Silver Cord adventure further flourished in 2018 when a third church partnered in Longdendale and there was a second partnership formed in Denton. Tameside Council awarded funds to Silver Cord so that Debs' role could be supported two days a week.

In this year we were able to provide our first in-person Christmas Day event. This was held at Hope Community Church in Mottram and was for anyone who would be spending the day alone. The event was an outstanding success with 65 attendees, including volunteers.

Silver Cord also began to explore how to provide intergenerational sessions and were fortunate to work with a local Primary School at a Monday Matinee to enable seniors and the younger generation to engage with each other and begin the process of building relationships.

2019

Another Christmas Day response was run by Hope Community Church, Mottram. Mottram was awarded Age Friendly status by the Mayor of Greater Manchester in recognition of the community work and befriending undertaken by Silver Cord in the locality.

2020

Prior to lockdown Silver Sundays began at another residential home in Mottram. However, with the COVID-19 lockdown all face-to-face support had to be replaced with telephone calls. Interestingly with COVID churches realised their essential role in helping the elderly who were isolated and lonely in their communities. So in 2020 Silver Cord's Church partnerships grew from 5 churches to 13 across Tameside and Glossop. To offer an emergency ‘COVID response’ more volunteers were recruited to meet the growing need.

In this year money was awarded from Jigsaw Housing Foundation to support Silver Cord for three years. This enabled Debs to work three days a week on the development.

During 2020 quizzes were sent out weekly to Matinée guests and Silver Cord clients. We also helped to facilitate garden events at local care and residential homes, until outdoor gatherings were banned in Greater Manchester in July that year.

To help those elderly members of the community who would be spending Christmas Day alone Silver Cord ran a Christmas Day delivery project. Thanks to the stalwart volunteers from the partner churches over 100 dinners and gifts were personally delivered on Christmas Day across Tameside and Glossop.

2021

In 2021 we saw funds awarded from the Council for the development of Silver Cord, and to encourage health and well-being of the elderly. We were also able to deliver Easter gift bags to all clients.

Once lockdown was over Matinée reopened at the church hall in July.

Face-to-face support with Silver Cord began again inline with the tight COVID regulations. As restrictions begin to lift we saw some clients attending groups and services at our partner churches.

The Christmas Day delivery project went really well with gift bags being delivered to 110 residents in Tameside and Glossop. Encouragingly there were 65 requests for the Gideon’s New Testament to be in the gift bag.

As Silver Cord was moving towards becoming a fully fledged charity a board of trustees were recruited.

2022

In 2022 we saw our Denton coordinator, Denise, step back from her coordinator role. The role was replaced by six volunteer coordinators recruited and trained to oversee the different areas.

With the work growing Silver Cord applied for charitable status, and held a vision evening with all potential partner churches and foundational documents developed for the continued growth of the ministry.

At Christmas we were again able to serve 120 people, who would have otherwise have spent the day alone. Each person received a Christmas Dinner and a bag of gifts on Christmas Day, delivered by volunteers from Silver Cord partner churches.