Our history

1995: First carer support meeting - A small group of 6 carers came together to support each other at John Haswell House.

2002: HRH Princess Ann Visits - We hosted royalty as we discussed carer's rights.

2003: Move to Regent Terrace - We relocated to Regent Terrace in the Centre of Gateshead.

2006: Registered Charity - We became a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.

2008: Carers Allowance Campaigning - Carers Elsie & Pat petition in London for a Carer's Allowance.

2011: Big Lottery £262,187 - Presented by actress Gaynor Faye, Gateshead Carers won funding.

2012: First Party in the Park - We celebrated Carer's Week at Saltwell Park with lots going on including health and wellbeing treatments, live music, and "Scrufts Dog Show".

2014: Community Allotment - We proudly opened our community allotment for carers.

2015: Moved back to John Haswell House - After 12 years, we returned to John Haswell House. We also opened our carers holiday home Caldew House in Cumbria so carers could have a short break.

2016: Marsh Award for Carers - Derek Elliott was presented with a Marsh Award for Carers.

2017: Working Carers Campaign - Our e-learning website launched as part of our campaign to raise awareness of working carers and their rights. 

2018: New Wellbeing Programme - We launched our Care to Share Wellbeing programme for carers, focussing on our strengths and assets based approach to caring. We were awarded the Equality Standard Gold Award.

2019: New contract - We were awarded a 5 year contract by Gateshead Council to continue to deliver our excellent service to carers.

2020: We achieved the Trusted Charity Mark award recognising the excellent work we do as a voluntary organisation in Gateshead. In addition we registered our commitment as disability confident as well as with the Fundraising Regulator. We have many exciting things this year including a new website, lots of carer groups and activities, and above all else loads of carers to meet and support.