Next week (12-18 June) is Loneliness Awareness Week, created and hosted by the Marmalade Trust. The theme this year is ‘Connection’, the same word, and the same concept, that pretty much sums up what we want to share with you from the newly formed Good Practice Mentor team.
The team (that’s me, Jo, Vicky, Jennie and Simon) are running a collection of short online courses for staff and volunteers who want to know more about effective ways to make connections.
Jo’s courses are based in the learning of Ageing Better in Camden. They explore ways you can work to help reconnect people who may be reluctant to engage in formal activities. They look at the comms you might use, the ways you might talk to people and the ways you might run activities in local venues.
Vicky is running an introduction to the Stronger Together Toolkit for people interested in the range of Co-production resources available.
I will be running sessions that look at how Social Isolation and Loneliness affect people and why they might find it so hard to make connections. We will look at ways to run events to offer people a Warm Welcome (based on the learning from Ageing Better in Camden and Time to Shine here in Leeds), and finally we’ll look at the additional barriers to connection some groups face.
The 14 areas that were a part of the Ageing Better programme all had connection with older people at their heart. The Good Practice Mentor team is here to offer support and advice based on the learning from the programme, to individual staff members and volunteers, small organisations, local authority departments and larger bodies. Our aim is to reduce loneliness for older people by working with others.
If you’d like to find out how we can help then please get in touch with me, or sign up for our mailing list.
Oh, and do check out the map on the Loneliness Awareness Week website.
Is there something near you?
Could you add something yourself?
Could you could make a friend?
Book your place on any – or all – of the Loneliness Awareness Webinars running from Tuesday June13 to Wednesday June 21.
Jessica Duffy
Good Practice Mentor
Jessica@opforum.org.uk