Support Crew is a free online help roster that allows those dealing with life changing events to easily co-ordinate meals, transport, child care and any other help they need from their friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and community.
Support Crew is for:
- anyone dealing with a life changing event – a Warrior.
- their carer/caregiver/chief support person – a Support Chief.
- their Support Crew – their support network (their friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and community) – no matter where in the world they might be.
- their Healthcare Providers.
A person’s life changing event may be:
- health related such as: cancer, Alzheimer’s/Dementia, arthritis, aged care, MS, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, sick infants and children, depression/anxiety.
- life related such as: bereavement, divorce/separation, a new baby, multi-births or redundancy.
- natural disaster related such as: floods, earthquakes or fire.
Essentially, Support Crew is for any time that a person needs a little bit, or a lot of help from their support network.
The type of help a person may need may include:
- practical help: like mowing the lawns, doing the gardens or cleaning the house.
- financial help: like funds for treatment costs, house modifications or day to day expenses.
- emotional help: like a message of support, a phone call or a visit.
When dealing with a life changing event, you often need help with meals, transport, child care from those around you. It’s likely that many of the people in your support network are asking ‘what can we do to help’ or ‘let us know what we can do to help’.
It’s not always easy to know what to say and sometimes asking for help can make us feel like we are a burden to others.
Support Crew, will help you to easily ask for the meals and help you really need whilst providing a super easy way for your support network to give.
A Warrior is anyone dealing with a life changing event or a time when they may need a little, or a lot of help and support from their family, friends, colleagues or community.
A Warrior and/or Support Chiefs’ support network. They can be friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and their community – no matter where in the world they may be.
Anyone in a Warrior’s healthcare team including: social workers, cancer co-ordinators or support workers from charities or organisations.
Anyone can – patients (Warriors), their caregivers (Support Chief), healthcare providers, even family members and friends (Support Crew members) are welcome to create a Support Page.
If you are creating a Support Page on behalf of someone else, please make sure you have their permission first.
Yes. You don’t need to have a Support Chief, carer or caregiver to create a Support Page.
Yes. It’s a great idea to create a Support Page on behalf of someone if you’re willing to manage the page on their behalf. Please however, only if you have gained their permission first.
Yes. You can create a Support Page and use the website without inviting anyone to become part of your Support Crew (support network). In fact, you may just want to use the website to quickly and easily access or purchase the services that are available to help fulfil your specific needs such as cleaning and lawn mowing services and meal providers.
Yes. You can create a Support Page and use the website without inviting anyone to become part of your Support Crew (support network). In fact, you may just want to use the website to quickly and easily access or purchase the services that are available to help fulfil your specific needs such as cleaning and lawn mowing services and meal providers.
No. Support Crew is free for anyone using the platform including Warriors (patient or the person dealing with a life event), Support Chiefs (carer/caregivers) and their Support Crew (support network) members.
It’s important to us that the website is as accessible and easy to use as possible so that we can help as many people as we possibly can.
Yes. Once you create a Support Page, you can appoint other Admins (administrators) to help manage your page. Most Support Pages have more than one person administering the page, often including the Support Chief/carer/caregiver as well as the Warrior/patient, but may also include other Support Crew members.
Admins can manage all aspects of the Support Page. Admins can post and update a need, invite and manage Support Crew members (including adding other Admins), and manage visiting and calling options.
As a wee side note: if you are an admin and you are posting or sharing information on the platform about a Warrior/patient, please remember to be mindful and respectful of their privacy. Please remember to be considerate of the information you are sharing, and of course have the permission of the Warrior, especially if sharing medical or health related information.
Yes! You can invite as many people as you want to become part of your Support Crew! In fact, we recommend that you invite as many people as you are comfortable with. The more people you invite, the more people there are available to help you!
You can invite as many people into your Support Crew (so your support network of family, friends, colleagues, community etc) as you wish. Your Support Crew can see your Support Page, view and accept need requests, and view and send messages of support on your Support Page.
No. Support Crew is a social enterprise. This means that our social mission: to make it easy for 1,000 kiwis to get a hand; is the core measurement to our success.
It’s extremely important to us that we build a sustainable business so that we can continue to invest in the website’s ongoing development so we can continue to help as many people as possible with the best possible customer experience.
We want to change the way we give and receive support when dealing with a life changing event. The essence of which is empowering people to ask for help, fearlessly. The inspiration for starting Support Crew has come from our own personal journeys with our own life changing events (stage IV colorectal cancer for Kelly’s partner Randal and a premature baby for Janine).
It’s important to us that those dealing with a life changing event feel empowered to ask for the help they need and that those supporting them have an easy way to support them with the things that they specifically need help with.
Please be in touch there’s anything you think we can do to make using Support Crew better supportangel@supportcrew.co.nz
No. To make Support Crew as easy to access, for as many people as possible, Support Crew is a website. This means that anyone with the internet can easily access Support Crew from a phone, computer, laptop or tablet.
When the Support Crew website is accesses from a mobile device, such as a phone or tablet, it does however look and function similarly to an app as we have designed it so that it’s mobile responsive and as easy to use on a mobile device as possible.
If a Warrior wants to use Support Crew and create a Support Page, and they don’t have access to the internet, they can ask anyone with internet access to set-up and manage a page for them. For instance: a health care provider, Support Chief, Support Crew member (family, friend, neighbour, colleague or someone in their community) could start a Support Page for a Warrior.
No. You can only see a person’s Support Page if you have been invited and have accepted an invitation to become a Support Crew member of a Support Page.
If you would like to be invited to a Support Page, contact your Warrior, Support Chief (or admin of the Support Page) and ask them to invite you to their Support Page.
Contact your Warrior or Support Chief (or an admin of the Support Page) and ask them to resend the invitation.
Go to your list of Support Crew members and click on ‘remove’ to remove a Support Crew member from your Support Crew.
Yes. Please contact us and we can arrange this for you. Simply email us at supportangel@supportcrew.co.nz.
Great question!
Facebook pages are great for communicating with a large number of people however when you’re dealing with a life changing event, it’s not just communication that you need to co-ordinate and manage. Facebook pages are a great for sharing but often don’t provide the privacy you require when dealing with the sensitivities of a life changing event.
Much more than just being able to help you to manage your communication and share updates, the Support Crew website also help you:
- create your own personalised Support Page
- invite your Support Crew – those friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and people in your community that you want on your journey with you
- figure out what you specifically need help with, by using our simple templates
- create meal requests, trips to appointments, school pick-ups, pet-care and the help you need in your Care Calendar
- share how things are going, update your Support Crew and send and receive messages of support
- manage your visitors.
Try doing that on Facebook!
If you are a Support Chief or Admin of a Support Page, and you are posting or sharing information on the platform about a Warrior/patient, please remember to be mindful and respectful of their privacy.
Please remember to be considerate of the information you are sharing, and of course have the permission of the Warrior, especially if sharing personal, medical or health related information.
In fact, for any user of the platform, this is something to always keep in mind.
Support Crew is intended to be a safe place, where you can share information freely and confidently with your invited group of people. It’s extremely important to us that you feel safe and confident to do so at all times. Should you feel that this isn’t the case, please be in touch.
Yes!
If you’re a Support Crew member, and you see a need request that you’d like to help with, simply click on ‘accept need’ and this will show up on your view of the Support Page as ‘Upcoming needs you’ve accepted’. This will also communicate to your Warrior, and everyone else who can see the page, that you’ll take care of this need! Nice one!
If you’re a Warrior, Support Chief, or Admin of a page, you can also ‘accept needs’ that have been taken care of. This might happen if someone turns up on your door with a meal for tomorrow that you requested on the platform. Simply go into the Support Page, and click on ‘accept need’ so that everyone seeing the page knows it’s taken care of! Easy huh?!
Yes! Absolutely!
Any information that you provide on your Support Page remains strictly confidential between yourself, your Support Crew members and Support Crew.
Your personally identifiable information will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to anyone for any reason, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of the Support Crew services via the Platform. For example, if someone in your Support Crew arranges for a meal to be delivered to you via the platform, we will provide your name and address details to the company providing that meal in order for your meal to be delivered to you.
It’s really important to us that you feel safe and secure about your data security and confidentially, so please refer to our Privacy Policy for further details.
Check out our short video on how to quickly and easily add need requests to a Support Page.
Check out our short video on how to quickly and easily invite Support Crew members to a Support Page.
Yes! When someone’s going through a difficult time, no matter what the reason, the biggest thing they’ll likely need help with is meals.
One of the best things you can do to support someone is to set-up a Support Page for them as a meal roster, or any other help for that matter!
If you’d like to see how to use a Support Page as a meal roster, check out our short video here.