Community First Yorkshire were formerly known as Rural Action Yorkshire. Their initial Time to Shine project, Community Connect, came to a close in June 2017. 

The project worked intensively with three village halls in rural North East Leeds over an 18 month period to enable them to become ‘Community Hubs’ capable of identifying and responding to the needs of their village’s older residents, who were experiencing or at risk of social isolation and loneliness. 

Community First Yorkshire acted as the Community Builder organisation and held an Activities Budget into which unconstituted groups could bid to run activities to support older people in their villages. 

This budget was equally divided between the three rural communities and simple standard application forms and selection criteria were developed.

The vision for the Project was to reduce the numbers of older people resident in the rural areas of North Leeds either at risk of or experiencing social isolation and loneliness by engaging with their local community hubs, offering a range of responsive activities to best meet the needs or desires of older people.

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