2010

Yvonne Ferrier, a member of the Chiclana Foreign Residents Association management committee “ChiFRA”, suggested setting up an Age Concern branch in Chiclana; so ChiFRA hosted a community meeting regarding Age Concern. We had guests from Madrid (the embassy) and Estepona (the president of the Federation of Age Concern Organisations and a colleague).

 
 

2010 to 2011

After the meeting, a group of volunteers agreed to take on the task of organising a branch of Age Concern in Chiclana. This group (headed by Edwin Cherry) was first tasked with fund raising and over the next couple of years they collected more than twice the 3,000€ needed to start up an Age Concern Organisation (ACO); a fantastic accomplishment.

2011

The new President (elect), Bob Hamilton, attended the ¨Federation of Age Concern España’s Annual General Meeting and Age Concern, Costa de la Luz Sur, was accepted as a member. There is a one year probation period, after which we will be full members.

2011 to 2012

  • The Constitution and Statutes were approved, signed, and submitted to the Junta de Andalucía. A charity registration number was received.
  • The Hacienda (tax office) was solicited for a Tax Number and a permanent tax number issued.
  • A mostly new committee was established and approved (we are lucky to have four members from the fund raising committee still on board). Named positions were assigned.
  • The Lifeline service was set up (the number one calls for assistance). The number is: 634 315 289 . It is manned from 09:00 – 17:00 Monday through Friday. There is a voice mail available for calls outside of working hours or calls missed during working hours. Many thanks to the folks at La Alternativa for donating a telephone for the Lifeline.
  • Training of volunteers in their potential duties/responsibilities was started. We were very fortunate to have a person of great experience in these matters who offered to help out as a volunteer, and to provide training for our new volunteers. We also have a couple of other folks on tap to help out in the future.
  • Fundraising continued, though the search for a dedicated committee member to head this on-going work was still ongoing.