SPONSORED EDITORIAL

Do you want to do something amazing this New Year and open your home, and your heart, to someone who needs your support?

Becoming a Shared Lives Host could be the most rewarding thing you'll ever do - making a real difference to someone with learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, autism, older people, a sensory impairment or someone living with dementia - and you'll get paid to do it.

You could make a difference to someone like Douglas, who is in his fifties.

Douglas had been living with his elderly father and was rarely leaving the house, and putting on weight.

Douglas's family initially decided to move him to a residential care home, but his care manager suggested Shared Lives may be a good option for Douglas, so sent in a referral to Shared Lives.

After Douglas and his brother had met his Host family, Rod and Lee, and felt reassured, Douglas moved in and in two years he has never looked back. He now enjoys walking the family's dog, and has lost 5 stone, getting out and about - even using the bus system by himself. He and Rod and Lee also share the home with another Shared Lives user, Noel, and a more recent member of the family, Oliver.

With Rod and Lee’s constant support, Douglas's life has been transformed, with him growing in confidence and becoming happier - even taking up trampolining, cricket, working at the local stables and going on holiday for the first time in 20 years.

Could it be for you?

If you think you could be a Shared Lives Host, and help someone like Douglas, Shared Lives will provide you with a flexible and interesting role, a great work-life balance, letting you be self-employed and develop your skills with a good financial reward. You'll receive training and support from the team.

For Shared Lives placements, it can improve their quality of life; give them the chance to live in a family environment, making relationships that could last a lifetime, and help them get involved in their local community - even finding employment.

Find out more

If you think you would like to join the Shared Lives service and change someone's life for the better, you can pop along to one of the regular information events held across the county.

You can also read other people's experiences, like Douglas's, by clicking here

Register your interest by visiting the website at kent.gov.uk/jobs/become-a-shared-lives-host or call 03000 412400 to find out more. Shared Lives is run by Kent County Council.