Our Karis BeFriends project can help older adults across Ladywood, Edgbaston and Harborne to make new connections and continue to flourish into later life. Each year we support around 180 individuals with over 2,000 points of contact including individual visits, trips and phone calls and a range of group activities.

We reach out to those who feel isolated or lonely and can visit people at home with a view to connecting people to our activities in the community - giving people chance to get out and connect with others.

Our activities include our Time for Tea events, held bi-monthly at Queen Alexandra College in Harborne, and our Senior Life Group, weekly at Oasis Church just off the Harborne High Street (please note that currently this group is being held at St John's Harborne whilst building works take place at Oasis). Our group events always feature speakers or activities, sometimes topical or seasonal, and a chance to get moving - but also discussions about more difficult topics that affect us all, like 'end of life', change and scams. It's a chance for people to meet each other, share their lives and receive support from each other as well as from our staff and volunteers. We encourage and support our participants in enabling our activities and contributing ideas, getting involved in what we do, not only during group activities but in volunteering to help with preparation and delivery of this work.

We also host an Art Group which takes place every two weeks at our offices in Ladywood - it's a relaxed and friendly environment led by one of our participants.  We work in just about every medium you can imagine and enjoy time together chatting and sharing stories and food. A recent project involved staff and volunteers of Karis embroidering self-portraits which we made into a giant banner celebrating all our people. 

Alongside getting to know people and helping them to build connections, we do also offer a neighbourly helping hand, offering occasional help with practical tasks in the home, getting to an appointment, or connecting to other support.