Bury Shared Lives: Jewish Stories

We need people in the Jewish community to care for Jewish people as Shared Lives carers.

We are Bury Shared Lives and we help people lead the life they choose with care from people in their own community.

We carefully match each person with a carer who shares their needs, beliefs and values. Once people are happily matched, we check regularly that the match still works; it can be ended if it doesn’t.

Our carers are self employed and supported by a diverse team who understand your concerns and can support you with any challenges.

You might have seen our articles in Jewish Advertiser, Jewish Chronicle or in Uplift magazine. We have worked in partnership with The Focus Foundation and The HelpLine and in 2023 we held an information event at Stenecourt Synagogue.

Find out more about joining Shared Lives as a carer here or click here to contact our team.

If you want to know more about getting support from Shared Lives, click here.

We asked Avremi what advice he would give to someone who was thinking about becoming a Shared Lives carer and he said:

"I imagine you feel the same as I did. You're asking 'How can I do this? It's going to be such an intrusion; it's going to take away from my family time. How are we going to manage such a thing?' And I would say - don't think like that. Think about 'How can I make this work?' not about the reasons it won't work. I would suggest that people try it out. That's what happened to us. I was only able to do it because I tried it.

You get a lot of support from the team; I look at the Shared Lives team as part of our family.

I also think it's very very important that you have boundaries in place. You're not somebody who will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can't do everything, but you can do what you can. Boundaries are what enable you to manage in the long term as a Shared Lives carer.

So I'd say do it! It's a great thing to do and don't be put off by all the work that you think you need to do, because just like when you have a child, it fits into the background of your life and it works amazing!"