Isabel Inman makes an appeal to help Waltham Forest’s elderly Contact the Elderly, a charity dedicated to tackling loneliness and isolation among […]By wfechoadmin
Isabel Inman makes an appeal to help Waltham Forest’s elderly
Contact the Elderly, a charity dedicated to tackling loneliness and isolation among older people, is urgently appealing for volunteers living in Waltham Forest to spare a few hours a month to help run its local tea parties – and enjoy a cuppa and a cake themselves!
The charity aims to relieve the acute loneliness of isolated older people, aged 75 and above, who live alone, by organising free monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups within local communities – friendship link every month.
Each older guest is collected from their home by a volunteer driver, and is taken to a volunteer host’s home, where they join a small group for tea, chat and companionship.
Contact the Elderly runs a popular group in Waltham Forest but in order to ensure that it continues to thrive, the charity is making an appeal for more coordinators who would be able to help organise the tea parties and liaise with the older guests and volunteers to ensure everything runs smoothly every month.
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Contact the Elderly’s East London Development Officer, Alison Minney, said: “The charity is committed to offering a lifeline of friendship to the oldest and loneliest people, but our attempts to continue to provide this lifeline for older people in Waltham forest have hit a bit of a stumbling block due to a real shortage of local volunteers to help run the group.
The coordinator role only involves a little extra regular commitment each month in addition to the tea party outings which everyone really enjoys!
So I’m calling for anyone who is interested in giving something back to their community to please get in touch with me as soon as possible.”
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