CASE STUDY: TAPESTRY CARE UK

Social investment to help people live a fulfilling life

Tapestry Care UK is a social business and registered charity, based in Essex, that’s committed to supporting people as they get older, helping them remain independent and live a positive, fulfilling life. Tapestry have been around for over 68 years and has helped over 350,000 people in that time. Their ethos is to ensure that local people and their families have the care and support they need. 

Their three core objectives are:

• To prevent people from going into nursing and residential care homes, especially if their current level of care means that they would be better off remaining at home.
• To provide personalised and tailored care to people that need practical support to maintain their independence.
• To support the families and friends of people who need care by providing friendly, impartial advice and opportunities for them to maintain their skills and get respite from their loved ones if they feel that they need this.

In 2018 CAF Venturesome made a social investment of £50,000 to help Tapestry sustain and grow their social impact. This funding has enabled Tapestry to continue to be entrepreneurial, invest in new technologies and form partnerships with other organisations to develop and implement innovative solutions for supporting vulnerable adults at home, and in community hubs in the community itself.

The investment has also enabled the organisation to continue to train its staff to provide empathetic, person-centred service. Most importantly it has allowed the organisation to look forward with confidence and grow rather than have to reduce activity because of short-term cash flow concerns.

“I just wanted to thank you all for all the support, care and understanding and love you've given to mum, especially in the last year or so with her dementia. We really appreciate and thank you for everything you do.”

The social impact of the loan has meant that the organisation is forecast to provide an additional 1,200-1,500 sessions for vulnerable people a year in its community hub, grow its home care business making more appointments available to more people in the community and introduce, in collaboration with a new partner, an app based social impact management system, that will provide all stakeholders with valuable information about the health and wellbeing of those using its services, in real time.

On Giving Tuesday this year, some of the CAF Venturesome team were given the opportunity to volunteer at Tapestry's day centres in Essex. We loved the warm, caring atmosphere and were very impressed by the staff. The people we met were beautiful to chat to and couldn’t speak highly enough of their days at the centre. We are truly in awe of what Tapestry does.

If you're a social organisation looking for help or a philanthropist looking to have more impact, talk to our team on 03000 123 300 or email us at venturesome@cafonline.org and we’ll be happy to help.