Residents welcome young volunteers participating in care home improvement project

Residents enjoyed spending time with a group of teenagers who visited the Essex care home as part of their volunteering project to make improvements to the home.

The volunteers were all aged from 15 to 17 and from the National Citizen Service (NCS), a programme run by Essex County Council running engaging projects to provide young people with opportunities to make improvements to their community.

Don Thomson House Residential Care Home experienced a transformation as the young participants painted a beach themed mural in the home’s seaside themed lounge and beach hut style sheds were built, painted and placed in the home’s gardens.

The home’s manager Rebecca Dunn said: “Our residents have absolutely loved having the volunteers at the home this week, there has been a real buzz in the air. Some of our residents joined in with the beach hut painting, which they were absolutely delighted about, and loved chatting to the young people.

“We are delighted to have had the NCS with us and are so grateful for the wonderful improvements they’ve made to the residents’ living environment, making it an even lovelier place.”

Ben Randall, who led the young volunteers group and is a youth support worker for the Essex County Council, said: “This is a fantastic group of young people who have been so enthusiastic about the project. They’ve all put a lot of hard work into the work they’ve done at the care home - we couldn’t have asked for a better group.”

The home is part of Sanctuary Care, which provides people across England and Scotland with nursing and residential care. Set up in 1969, the Sanctuary Group which runs Sanctuary Care now employs over 11,000 people to provide care to older and vulnerable people with a variety of complex needs.

The NCS is a Government funded scheme which helps young people to develop their work and life skills at the same time as improving life for others in their community.