About us
Karis Neighbour Scheme (KNS) is based on the principle of grace - it's what our name 'Karis' means - as shown by a good neighbour. We take particular inspiration from the story of the 'Good Samaritan', shared as part of the teachings of Jesus, which gives an example of how grace demonstrated in unconditional compassion and action can be life-changing.
Our story starts with a group of local GPs at the nearby Karis Medical Centre who recognised that their patients' health and wellbeing was being impacted by wider needs that couldn't be met entirely by healthcare - they had a concern for the whole-person, including emotional, social and spiritual needs.
One of the responses to this, in partnership with local churches, was to establish KNS as a charity to mobilise people and resources to respond to needs in our community. We received charitable status in 1999 and began with a broad remit to address social isolation - which was a particular need amongst older people - and to provide practical help to those struggling with living on low incomes, which affected many families in our area.
While our range of projects and activities has developed over the years in response to changing local needs, the work we do continues to be underpinned by the principles of offering friendship and neighbourly help to those who need it through the time, skills and resources people in our community have to offer. Our early projects included Karis BeFriends and our Children and Families Work, offering befriending to older adults and families respectively. The latter was particularly aimed at new arrivals to the area. Both these areas of work took shape within the first few years of KNS.
In 2014 we saw our established advocacy work develop into Ladywood Community Advice, adding welfare rights expertise in response to a gap left by another local project ending. In the same year we also took on the Listening and Guidance service, building on established Chaplaincy work in a GP setting, providing spiritual and emotional care for patients. We expanded our welfare rights work in 2019 with KBF Advice, responding to a need for outreach and home visits to those who struggled to get to our base in Ladywood, and in 2023 we began a Men's Space project looking to fill a gap around befriending and meaningful activities for men.
We have been a consistent presence in our community for over 25 years, are well known and trusted with established programmes of work that address need and, in particular, fill gaps in other service provision. We recognise we don't work in isolation and value and invest in relationships with many other groups locally and across the city. We also value input from local residents, clients and our volunteers informally but also through our established Community Advisory Group, which provides a forum for people to talk about arising issues and discuss potential ways we can work together to support the local community through those challenges.
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Our 87 active volunteers underpin our provision, offering their time and skills to help support the work we do. They often work directly with clients, particularly in the field of befriending, and are invaluable to us.
