Interviewer

Good morning. Could I start by asking your name?

Steve Taylor

Yes. I’m Steve Taylor.

Interviewer

And which Friends group are we talking about today?

Steve Taylor

Tower Bridge Care Home in Bermondsey, London.

Interviewer

Thank you. And could I ask how old you are, Steve?

Steve Taylor

Yeah, I’m 67, but 68 later this month. January 2025.

Interviewer

Thank you for your time today. Now we’ve known each other, I reckon, for at least 10 years. And we first met at the Friends of 54 Camberwell Green. Yes. So could you explain what got you interested in the care homes?

Steve Taylor

Yes, as you say we met initially when Attend approached the church I was working with, which is Grove Chapel in Camberwell. I was attached there as a London City Missionary. And you were looking to recruit volunteers to work in the home. Now, at that time we did have some work in some sheltered housing accommodation, and other contacts with seniors in the community. So I was tasked to meet with you to explore the possibility of some sort of partnership.

Interviewer

So was London City Mission your job at the time?

Steve Taylor

Yes, that’s right. I came to London in 2000 to join the City Mission. A little bit of the history, the London City Mission began in 1835, and the commitment there was to try to share the love of Jesus with the more needy parts of the city,  and the sort of people who fell through the net of local churches, and chapels. So the commitment was always to not only promote faith and belief in Jesus Christ, but to also mobilise people to practically demonstrate the love of Jesus in the more needy parts of the city. So that was one thing that attracted me to come to London. And my first appointment in 2000 was to work with Grove Chapel. And so I got quite involved with seniors, both in the church, and in the community from that time on.

Interviewer

Excellent. And that early discussion that you’ve described turned into us sort of persuading you to become a volunteer, and that ran, it must be for at least 10 years.

Steve Taylor

Right.

 

Interviewer

Could you explain the sort of roles, the sorts of things that you used to do in Tower Bridge Care Home?

Steve Taylor

Yes. Well, initially I think it was a bit of a false start because shortly after we went through the discussions,  and I’d agreed to take part in Camberwell Green, the nursing home there, it actually closed down. Yes. And it was around about the time I was asked to move to a different area of work in the mission. And so I think we lost contact for about two or three years. And then it came back again that I had the freedom to explore volunteering with other organisations. And that’s when our contact concerning Tower Bridge Care Home came about. So initially, I joined what was called the Tuesday Church at Tower Bridge Care Home. A lot of the residents weren’t able to get out to church, those who had commitments in, you know, their own local church, and so on. So what we did was to run a service on a Tuesday with volunteers from some of the local churches coming in to perhaps lead a few songs, and so on, and give a Bible talk.

Steve Taylor

That was initially my contact occasionally doing the Bible talk, and just being there for the Sunday. But after that, developed an opportunity perhaps to work a couple of days a week, just coming in as almost like a pastoral visitor, getting to know the residents, and some of the staff, and encouraging the staff, particularly,  often it was a very demoralising experience, and a tough job. And so just encouraging some of the staff, but then also obviously building relationships, and friends, friendships with a number of the residents. So that was sort of tied in with the work that was done by the activities coordinators in the home. So it was partly participating in some of the activities, but also then one-to-one talking, and friendship building with a number of the residents.

Interviewer

So your experience in life has given you a lot of understanding of elders, and the experiences they have. One of the bits that I’m very conscious of is that as people get older, they can become more isolated, be that in a home or be that in their own home. And therefore their faith journey can become more challenging. Do you think there is a role for everybody to support the spiritual journey of older people?

Steve Taylor

Yes, I think that’s very important, really.  The London City Mission have got a new strategy now, which is to partner with local churches in the various Boroughs around London. And folks like myself who was a staff worker are no longer just doing the work, can seen as a specialist to do that, but is to actually train, and motivate members of different congregations to actually put their faith into action. And one way of doing that is by befriending the needy people in our community. And so a lot of the workers in London City Mission has been known in the past for door-to-door visitation. Now, sometimes that gets a bad press in the religious world, and the secular world today, but the unique thing about the visitation promoted by London City Mission is that it’s not just cold calling, but it’s actually to build a relationship into the community, to assure people that the church is there for them.

Steve Taylor

And we are there to provide help, and assistance in whatever way possible. So most of my colleagues who are sort of working alongside churches, and encouraging them to get to know their community, when they come across lonely, isolated people, there’s often an opportunity of channeling some of their church members into that sort of work. One of the encouraging things I’ve seen is in London, there’s a lot of people come, a lot of young people come, young urban professionals to get a job. And they often tend to have a very narrow social community. And a number expressed to me that, you know, they find that quite challenging. They miss the intergenerational contact of perhaps their hometown with grandparents, and so on. And so an opportunity for them to volunteer to work with seniors is like giving them a surrogate family. They may be hundreds of miles away living in London, just having colleagues of the same age. But the actual opportunity of either visiting seniors in the community or going into nursing homes to relate to people of an older age is beneficial to them. It sort of recreates that multi-generational society or community which they’re missing as lone workers in a city like London.

Interviewer

So thinking about your time at Tower Bridge Road, do you have any particular good memories of an individual or a situation there that you were involved in over the years?

Steve Taylor

Yes, I mean there were lots of lovely people, and it was sad to see them come to the end of their journey. But I think there’s one resident in particular I got on very well with, and we often had a good talk. She was a lady in a wheelchair, but her mind was very sharp, and we had good conversations both about spiritual things, but more just everyday things. But it was thrilling, perhaps just before Covid, I think she enrolled on a Theological course, and it was great to chat to her about the things she was studying, and I could lend her some of the books that I’d acquired in my Theological studies as well. So it was great to get to know her, and to see her faith growing, and deepening both through contact together, but her being, in a sense led to dig a bit deeper into the roots of her faith which is encouraging.

Interviewer

Thank you. Now, when you knew we were going to be meeting today, was there anything you wanted to tell me that you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

Steve Taylor

Well, I’d be interested to know about how Attend actually builds links with nursing homes. Because we’ve moved now to a new town or city in retirement. We have a big nursing home right on our doorstep. I haven’t yet made any inroads or any sort of overtures to them about how I might serve there. I don’t know if there’s a friends of that particular home, but how would you go about doing that?

Interviewer

I think for anybody listening to this who might be in the same situation as you described, lone worker, missing intergenerational contact, all care homes, in my experience, will welcome the involvement of the community coming in.  Significantly,  most care homes in our experience, are struggling to get the involvement of Faith organisations. That’s a real challenge. And actually, it’s quite often on the list of things that Care Homes ask me to do is, to go out, and try and build those bridges. But literally for anybody, they can either come through us, and we can try and help them break into a local home if they’re struggling with that. But certainly a smiling, warm face, and asking to speak to the manager. Most care homes will have some process of safely recruiting people from the community into the home and get them involved in one-to-one contact with residents. And to me, the most important thing that we can offer is our time, our friendship to residents. And that has to be done on a one-to-one. And for people that don’t understand much about that, that will mean a degree of DBS checking. It will involve perhaps taking up some references, and it may involve a little bit of training as well, but fundamentally, it’s a small price for us to pay to make that huge difference to people’s lives.

Interviewer

So thank you. Anything else?

Steve Taylor

It has been good to meet up with you again,  and get a bit of an update? I know there’s been a lot of changes at Tower Bridge even in the three months or so we’ve been outside of London. So thanks very much for your update.

Interviewer

Thank you. Thank you very much for your time.