20,000 Pledges, Turning Good Intentions into Purposeful Actions

Tommy shares his thoughts on the 'You Can Make a Difference' campaign's incredible landmark.

We are so very honoured to announce that more than 20,000 individuals, hospitals, universities, colleges, care homes and hospices have now added personal pledges to our ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign. This is a wonderful milestone to reach and would not be possible without the commitment and passion of everyone who attends our talks, reads about our campaign and pledges to make a difference to the lives of people with dementia and their carers. We have reached over 150,000 people across more than 750 talks and have met so many remarkable people so far.

These 20,000 pledges are from a personal perspective so each of them is unique and from the heart. 20,000 people have stopped and reflected on what they can do in their lives to make a difference. And no matter what your role, everyone has the potential to transform the lives and experiences of people with dementia and their carers, often in seemingly small ways.

I’d like to thank my teammates Irene, Laura and Matthew and all of the amazing people we have met on our You Can Make a Difference tour.

We are constantly inspired by the remarkable people that we meet, the knowledge, skill, dedication and care we witness and the incredible ways people turn pledges into actions. Thank you to each and every one of you.

We are really proud to be able to work with the Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland Professor Fiona McQueen (this link will take you away from our website), and the Chief Nursing Officer for England Professor Jane Cummings (this link will take you away from our website), sharing key messages from both and feeding back on the aims and outcomes of the people we have met.

You can read all of the pledges we have received so far on our website, as well as our pledge case studies, most recent publication and 5 Steps to Change resource.

The campaign will continue throughout the year. If you have been inspired to make a pledge yourself, you can email us at dementiacarervoices@alliance-scotland.org.uk

We’d love to hear how you plan to make a difference!

ALLIANCE Director Irene Oldfather added that:

“To have reached 20,000 pledges is an incredible landmark for our ‘You Can Make a Difference’ campaign. The Dementia Carer Voices project really speaks to the hearts of people working within the health and social care sector, and often reminds them of why they decided to devote their lives to caring for others in the first place.

“Our talks are an ideal opportunity for health and social care staff to pause and reflect on what is really important to the people in their care. As our case studies show, a small pledge can make a huge difference.”

We have published a press release for this landmark here on the Dementia Carer Voices website.

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