BizzyBox Lending Project

Carers Network's unique BizzyBox Lending Project continues to provide carers with the opportunity to borrow for free activity items that they can enjoy with their loved ones, and has enabled Carers Network to work in partnership with other local organisations.

A creative befriender from Resonate Arts, has recently been borrowing a number of resources that they have been using with a client who lives with dementia.

"Over the past few months, my Befriendee and I have enjoyed using the Carers Network interactive puppies (now named Bonkers the Beagle and Woofy the Jack Russell!) during our sessions. My Befriendee loves stroking and cuddling them, and together we’ve imagined countless adventures. It is incredible to see the joy and light they bring and just shows how important the sense of touch and connection can be for a person living with dementia."  Creative Befriender, Resonate Arts, Dec 2025.

Your continued generosity has helped us to expand and keep running this project so that more carers can borrow products from the library to enjoy the benefits of with their loved ones at home.

Carers Network's unique BizzyBox Lending Project has now been supporting unpaid carers in central London for over three years!

There are 135 carers registered on the online lending library, with nearly 250 product loans to date.

Activity products from the library have been taken on request to the monthly coffee mornings that Carers Network runs in the City of Westminster, The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This gives carers across these boroughs the opportunity to borrow and return items at various venues throughout each month.

As well as being an opportunity to borrow therapy products such as this, these coffee mornings continue to be a fantastic opportunity for carers to get together, socialise, provide each other with peer support. They can also speak to members of Carers Network’s staff team attending for help and advice in relation to their caring role.

Opportunities to meet at such coffee mornings help to reduce the social isolation that carers often face due to their demanding day-to-day caring roles, as well as providing carers with a very well-earned break and some time for themselves so that they can re-charge.

The project has also enabled Carers Network to work in partnership with other local organisations such as Resonate Arts who offer a range of arts projects and creative opportunities for people living with dementia, their carers, family members and supporters.

Recently one of their Creative Befrienders borrowed a comfort pet to introduce to a client who is both blind and living with dementia and other befrienders will soon be borrowing some more comfort pets to try out.

In late Aug 2025 they will also be borrowing a Sewing Box Magnetic Picture Board for one of their clients living with dementia who loved to cook, along with a selection of fidget blankets which people with dementia can benefit from as a source of sensory stimulation and engagement.

With the help of your generous donation, Carers Network has been able to expand and keep running this project so that more carers and their loved-ones living with dementia can benefit from the library of products.