Laughter, connection, value and friendship all play a vital role in our well-being. Meaningful connection and community help our sense of belonging and purpose into later life.

Caraway aims to facilitate this for older people across Southampton. Founded in 2018 we have been growing a dedicated team of Chaplains and volunteers who come alongside older people and help them to navigate the experiences and changes later life brings.

We offer Chaplaincy Services and Dementia Services and take referrals for these through our website – please explore to find out more about what we do and activities near you.

Whether through a home visit, a telephone call, or at a local community group or Care Home – we aim to:

• Combat loneliness
• Create community
• Celebrate life

Our Team

Meet our wonderful team of staff and volunteers.

Team

I wanted to say thank you on behalf of our care home for the warm welcome and hospitality you showed us during the Harvest Festival service this morning. Our residents truly enjoyed being a part of the celebration, and it meant a great deal to them to join in the service.

Kiya – Care Home Service

"We thoroughly enjoyed our day in New Zealand! It was really well planned, food very nice - so HUGE thanks to all involved in any part of the day - we thought it was great and huge fun learning the Haka! The young lady teaching us was really good and had us all laughing about it!. The whole day is something to remember with much pleasure."

Guest, Holiday at Home

“We have made new friends who understand the situation and it’s absolutely marvellous.”

Carer, Memory Cafe

“I like getting out and about, meeting people, having a laugh and a joke, all those sorts of things…”

Guest with Dementia, Memory cafe

Why do you come as a volunteer to help with events like Vintage Adventure in church? …Well, as I’m getting older, I realise that for an awful lot of the elderly, they’ve not got very long left to get to know the lord So I think this generation is the most important ministry. If you’re in with students and you mess it up, they’ve got a whole lifetime when they can met somebody who will correct it. We haven’t got that luxury so this is a very important ministry and I just want to do my little bit.

Rob Childs