£10,000 from the National Lottery
We have received a £10,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund!
The grant will go towards the Hub Managers’ and Manager’s pay to enable them to implement our new hybrid service so that we can keep our members connected, safe and engaged no matter what happens in the future.
As you know, before the pandemic we ran 6 small supportive groups in Wiltshire for isolated older people using professional arts to provide the stimulation, friendship and fun missing from their lives and reduce damage to their health and wellbeing caused by extreme loneliness.
During the pandemic we have kept the members connected via phone calls, postal projects, zoom workshops and get-togethers and social media.
This money will support the safe reopening of our groups and the smooth transition to a more flexible hybrid service, integrating new ways of working remotely into our core activities.
We can also continue to work with partners such as Mental Health teams to reach their isolated elderly clients with our postal projects and promote new activities online to reach more isolated older people living at home.
There are few stimulating social opportunities in Wiltshire for people as frail as our target group and previously our activities were limited to group members. After the pandemic we will reach a growing number of isolated older people in Wiltshire and possibly beyond to counteract the damaging effects of isolation and extreme loneliness, enabling them to declare:
“I now want to be part of the world. I didn’t before I joined.”