1. Gateshead Carers Association
(GCA) working with Interactive
Media Design Year 3 students,
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne & Gateshead
Key words: public services, community
building, social services
Caring through sharing. Exploring
the potential of digital media to
improve communication with carers.

2. Context: Gateshead Carers Association (GCA) has
been running for over sixteen years and is currently
helping in excess of seventeen hundred carers in the
Gateshead local community. Carers provide unpaid help
and support to people who would otherwise not be able
to manage their daily lives because of their disability,
illness, addiction or frailty.
GCA wants to reach carers earlier in their caring
journey, in order to support them before they reached
crisis point.

3. Project:
1.The redesign of its brand
and identity
2.The ‘service design’ of its
communication with carers
3.Making use of social
media to publicise events
and improve communication
between carers and GCA

4. Design role: created a
number of different and varied
design responses that
informed GCA on the ways
digital media can improve
communication with carers.