Les Amis hopes to push ahead with nursing facility plan

Friday 01 January 2021

A local disability charity is hoping its pandemic-delayed plan to create a dedicated Nursing Facility to care for islanders with disabilities and dementia in their old age will “pick up speed” in 2021.

Les Amis was founded in 1975 with the aim of supporting and empowering people with disabilities.

Since then, the charity has grown and now has over 200 employees who are still dedicated to fulfilling their mission of providing quality services to support people with learning disabilities and/or associated conditions to gain equal opportunities in Jersey.

Express spoke to Jason Loveless, Head of Support Services at Les Amis, about his new year hopes for the charity...

“I think what everyone at Les Amis would really like for Christmas is some normality back in our lives.

The option to take our residents out and about within the community once again and to connect with the public. Once this pandemic has passed, we hope to be able to resume our events in 2021, bringing back our Christmas Carol Service and of course fundraising for the charity through initiatives such as the Camper Van Raffle Prize draw.

Pictured: Les Amis hope to be able to bring back their Christmas Carol Service in 2021.

Not only do our residents look forward to these events and meeting others but it helps to raise awareness of our charity and the important work we do on the island.

Beyond this, we would of course like the opportunity to care for those with a learning disability up to the point of death, which we can achieve through the building of a new Nursing Care facility.

The pandemic has further delayed this project, but we continue to advocate the importance of prioritising such a facility for our service users and those with a form of dementia in Jersey, especially being an island with a growing and ageing population.

We hope this project will pick up speed in 2021 to see the delivery of a specialised care facility as soon as practically possible.

We would also like to see more work opportunities for our residents arise in the future. 

Pictured: Les Amis tackles local challenges, such as the ageing population, and develops social enterprises that benefit the community as a whole.

We will be facilitating this through the expansion of our recycling business initiative, collecting recycled oil from a variety of businesses. This enterprise provides our residents with meaningful employment and I know there are plans for further opportunities to be developed on the island next year.

We would love to see the island become more accessible for those with a learning disability both through employment opportunities and the partnership with corporates and attractions to see what good work we can achieve together to better people’s lives."

More information about Les Amis and their work can be found on their website.