Over 7000 Spar colleagues to become Dementia Friends

Spar has announced that it will work with Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) in its dementia campaign.

The convenience store group hopes to help over 7,000 colleagues to become Dementia Friends. The ACS campaign aims to create a total of 25,000 Dementia Friends in the convenience sector.

ACS has launched the campaign last month in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society to help convenience retailers and colleagues better understand and support customers living with dementia.

As Spar stores are located at the heart of communities and many owners and colleagues live in the neighbourhood, the symbol group said it is ideally placed to help support these vulnerable customers.

“I am delighted that so many of our Spar colleagues have committed to becoming Dementia Friends. With over 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, a huge number will live in the communities our stores serve,” commented Cath McIlwham, Head of CSR at Spar UK.

“This is such a worthwhile campaign as our Spar stores are ideally placed to make a real difference to the most vulnerable people in our society. This campaign enhances the great work our stores already do and the important role they play at the heart of communities all over the country.”

To become a Dementia Friend, Spar staff need to complete a short online course available via Alzheimer’s Society and once completed, they will wear a Dementia Friends badge to demonstrate they understand dementia.

James Lowman , ACS chief executive, said: “We are proud to be working with Alzheimer’s Society on this campaign and I would urge all retailers and their staff to get involved in order to better understand how they can support their customers and colleagues who are affected by dementia.

“Spar’s commitment to create 7,000 Dementia Friends as part of the campaign is fantastic, and will help tens of thousands of people affected by dementia across the UK.”