Do you remember our Share the Bear campaign last year for Carers Week in June 2021? Well, we hope so. And we are back with more.
What is Carers Week?
Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring. We highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK. It also helps people who don’t think of themselves as having caring responsibilities to identify as carers and access much-needed support.
The campaign is brought to life by thousands of individuals and organisations who come together to provide support for carers. Together we run activities, highlight the vital role carers play in our communities and draw attention to just how important caring is. It’s about education. And it’s about connecting people with the support they need and deserve.
Share the Bear video
Videos and stories connect people. Which is why we have created a short video for Carers Week called Share the Bear. It explains what we do – free breaks for carers – and makes it easy for you to share this across social media platforms using #ShareTheBear. We are keen to be introduced to carers and carer support organisations. If you know any, please send them the Share the Bear video.
Umbrage the travelling bear
This year, we are introducing a new way to get involved with Carers Week. Let us explain.
From time to time, our mascot, Umbrage the teddy bear, has helped us raise awareness of the work we do to support unpaid carers. With Carers Week coming up at the beginning of June, we would like to feature Umbrage on his holidays – resting, with friends, on the beach, and spending time with family. All the things we humans love doing.
After Umbrage is all about taking a much-needed break. We ask for your help to reach more people with this message. That, creating happy memories with family and friends really matters. It makes people smile, it boosts wellbeing, and it helps us recharge our batteries to continue our work.
Can you take photographs of your teddy bear when you are out and about? It doesn’t have to be on holiday.
Umbrage on Tour
Let’s keep things simple. Umbrage represents all teddy bears who are loved and cared for. So, your teddy bear can participate in this campaign. Here’s how:
- Take your teddy bear out and about with you – wherever you are goin.
- Photograph him/her with your family or on his/her own.
- Share your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and tag @afterumbrage
- If you prefer, send your photos us us via email to tracy@afterumbrageo.org.uk
- Have fun!
- And help us reach more unpaid carers, fundraisers, referrers and supporters
Let’s create some smiles, engage your children, and get them to share our small charity with people we haven;t met – yet!
Stories connect people too
We devote a page of our website to our beneficiaries. Those who are happy to be open and share their stories as carers. Atiq Hassan, Emma Thomspon and Sara Bailey are just three wonderful carers who have been happy to work with us and to tell their stories about family, love and caring. Here are many more stories.
Happy Carers Week 2022 – Share the Bear
We’d like to meet more carers. We want to make carers feel more visible and feel valued. We’d like to meet more Carers Support Organisations who support carers like us but in different ways. Can you introduce us to people whose lives have been touched by caring roles? We’d like to meet people who’d like to fundraise for us like Bethan Williams and Sam Woodfield.
These things will make Carers Week 2022 feel like a success! If you are looking for more information, please pop over here to our website.