Kingsbridge Age Concern committee and its board of Trustees unanimously voted to adopt the name ‘Kingsbridge Caring’ to reflect the growing diversity of the charity’s services within the community.

Graham Smith, who has served as chairman for almost 15 years, proposed the name change at Monday’s committee meeting and AGM, and all members agreed.

He said: “when I first came here, Age Concern was known as a luncheon club for the elderly, and a place for community groups to meet.

”Since then, we have expanded our services to include anyone over the age of 55 – hardly elderly – and we offer a much greater range of activities and support to promote the health and wellbeing of our clients.”

The charity now runs a much needed and very popular meals on wheels service, delivering hundreds of hot lunches to clients throughout Kingsbridge and its surrounding areas, as well as continuing to offer daily sit-down lunches and Saturday breakfasts. It has also recently launched a Home Support Service which was kickstarted with a £6000 grant from Devon County Council. The aim of this service is to help older people, and those recovering from illness or recently discharged from hospital, remain independent in their own homes.

Help includes light cleaning and housework, gardening, odd jobs, shopping, companionship, organising paperwork, and attending appointments. The information and advice service, which includes help applying for welfare and benefits, is now available five mornings a week.

In addition, the centre hosts a growing range of complementary therapies such as reflexology, reiki, and counselling. Looking ahead the new look Kingsbridge Caring hub plans to relaunch popular group activities in the new year, including the memory café, singing groups, knit and natter, quilting, arts and crafts, and an IT club.

It is also planning games nights, film nights, exercise classes, dances, and several outdoor community events. “We have evolved so much since I started volunteering here” continued Graham, “and we now offer far more care and support for a much wider age group.

He added: “Changing the name to Kingsbridge Caring reflects what we are offering the community far more accurately than Age Concern”.

A further reason for the change lies in the fact that Age Concern is often mistaken for the national charity, Age UK.

Over the years, this has led to people unwittingly donating or leaving legacies to the wrong organisation whilst believing they were supporting a local cause. “Since we started in 1981, Kingsbridge Age Concern has always been an independent, self-funded charity, providing support for the elderly in our local community. We have missed out on so much potential funding over the years because people wrongly assume that we are the same as Age UK”. The Trustees and committee members agreed that a name change would clear up this confusion and help people direct their donations to the right charity. Centre Manager, Suzi Garrod, said: “Age UK does an amazing job on a national level, but we are a local charity supporting our local community and any money donated to us goes towards providing services for people living in Kingsbridge and its surrounding villages only.” The committee’s resolution and supporting documents have already been registered with the Charities Commission and the name change will be formerly amended in the next few weeks. In the meantime, its business as usual. “The services we offer will remain the same” continues Suzi. “As Kingsbridge Caring we will continue to promote the health and wellbeing of the elderly, and other vulnerable adults in the same way. The only thing that has changed is our branding. In fact, the services we provide are pretty much the same as those offered by Dartmouth Caring, Modbury Caring and Totnes Caring, so it makes even more sense for us to adopt a similar name. We are in the process of developing a new website that will run alongside our existing one for the next 12-18 months to help people adjust to the new name.

Our social media accounts will be changing too. This is an exciting time for the charity, we are supporting more people than ever before and look forward to offering even more community services in the coming months and years”.