The Story So Far

Our founder Alex met isolated older neighbour Fred and took him for his first haircut in 3 months, inspiring the idea for The Cares Family. Watch the video >>

North London Cares opened spontaneously in August 2011 amid rioting by mobilising young people to assist with the cleanup. Within hours 5,000 people had visited our website and Mayor of London Boris Johnson had tweeted to thank us for our role in the post-riots narrative.

Our sibling charity South London Cares opened in Southwark and Lambeth. South London Cares had the same model as us, mobilising younger volunteers to connect with their older neighbours below the river in Southwark and Lambeth, but a different community. Check out Sylvia telling us all about her local area of Brixton...

In 2017 - Manchester Cares was born! Our northern sibling threw open thier doors to invite older and younger Mancunians to spend time with one another.

What started as a ripple was becoming a wave of connection gathering pace across the country. In 2018, we opened our very own Liverpool Cares, expanding The Cares Family to our wonderful but fast changing city.

And in 2019, East London Cares joined the family – to tackle isolation and loneliness and connect younger and older neighbours across Tower Hamlets and Hackney. That’s how The Cares Family is a family in more than a name – it’s a place for people to belong, and to feel ‘part of something bigger'.

2020 changed how we interact with our communities more rapidly than ever before. The onset of the pandemic and ensuing social distancing and isolation brought new challenges to our model. But, just as our community stepped up to help one another out nearly a decade before in the wake of the riots, neighbours came to each other's aid again to help each other stay connected – online, on the phone and in the community, albeit not face-to-face.

Our original sibling charity, North London Cares, celebrated their 10th birthday this year! We may have been here for a decade, but we’re far from done. As we look forward to the next decade, we're proud to call our scouse city home. Thank you, Liverpool, for showing there is power in community.

Liverpool Cares celebrated our 4th birthday with one of our biggest social clubs to date, almost 60 new and familiar faces joined us to celebrate four years of connection and friendship across our brilliant city.

After all the challenges of the past few years, it was great to celebrate together once again, and we look forward to connecting with each other more in the years to come.