Be Connected

Be Connected supports and encourages our residents to connect and engage with others through a variety of initiatives that looks to combat loneliness and reduce social isolation.

There are a number of initiatives that sit on different platforms that are accessible to support residents including:

A Fresh Look at Our Virtual Coffee Mornings

For the past five years, our Virtual Coffee Mornings have been a much loved weekly get together, hosted every Tuesday at 11am. They’ve given residents the chance to connect, chat, and enjoy a friendly catch up from the comfort of home and we’re so grateful to everyone who has joined us over the years. To keep things fresh and exciting, we’re pleased to share that our virtual coffee mornings are getting a little refresh!

From Tuesday 7th July, coffee mornings will move to a bi-monthly schedule, taking place every other Tuesday at 11am.

Each month will now include:

One Guest Speaker Coffee Morning - held in the first week, featuring a guest speaker on an interesting topic

One Social Coffee Morning - a relaxed session in the other week, focused on friendly conversation and connection

That means across the year, you can look forward to 12 guest speakers and 12 social catch ups. Guest speaker topics may include travel, wellbeing, history, and much more.

We’d love these sessions to reflect what you enjoy, so if there’s a topic you’d like to hear about or a speaker you’d love us to invite, please let us know. Email us at [email protected], and we’ll do our very best to accommodate your ideas.

Pen Pal & Befriending Service - A Fresh Approach

We know how important it is to stay connected and feel part of a community. That’s why we’ve refreshed how we support residents to build meaningful connections. Our previous in-house Pen Pal scheme has now been replaced with a new approach, where we connect residents with Omega, a UK charity that specialises in reducing loneliness and social isolation. This change allows us to offer a wider range of flexible, high-quality befriending options, tailored to suit different preferences and needs.

About Omega

Omega is a UK-based charity that provides free befriending services to support people who may feel isolated or unable to get out and meet others. Their services are delivered through trained and carefully matched volunteers, helping to create safe, supportive and meaningful connections.

What services are available?

You can choose from a range of options:

Letterbox - Pen Pal (letter writing) - A traditional pen pal service where you can exchange regular letters with a volunteer.
Chatterbox - Telephone befriending - Regular friendly phone calls, offering conversation and connection
Pupil Pals - Intergenerational connections - Receive letters, drawings and messages from school children.

There are also additional services available to support people with specific needs, helping ensure everyone can access the right support.

Moving to this model means:

Access to a specialist organisation with expertise in befriending
A wider choice of ways to connect
Greater flexibility to suit different preferences
A sustainable way to continue supporting resident wellbeing

How to get involved

If you’d like to take part, you can:

Visit Omega’s website: Find out more about Omega

Apply directly:

Or contact us at [email protected]k, and we’ll be happy to support you through the process.

Chatty benches

Chatty benches are springing up all over the country to combat loneliness and reduce social isolation. It’s a simple idea where existing or newly installed benches have a sign on them that shows by sitting on them, a person is happy to chat with whoever comes and sits next to them. It is a fantastic opportunity to increase face to face interaction, spark up new conversations and making lasting friendships.

Find out more about Chatty Benches

Book Club

Come and join our virtual book club and immerse yourself into different characters and stories. The aim of our book club is to bring residents and colleagues together who have a passion for books, speak to others to gain their interpretation of the book and be part of a book loving community.

Our book club takes place once a month. You can connect via Microsoft Teams or dial into conversation using your mobile phone.

Re-engage

Re-engage is a call companion service for older people who live alone or in sheltered housing. This befriending service aims to help tackle the increased loneliness experienced by the people living with us, and the real difficulties that many face around accessing services in person.

Re-engage also offer a Rainbow Call Companion service supporting members of the LGBTQ+ community and face to face tea parties. They are also always on the look-out for volunteers so if you have some free time that you would like to put to good use, find out more here.

We work with the specialist charity Re-engage to maximise the number of people we can help through their extensive network of Call Companion volunteers. Re-engage has been operating for over 50 years and exists to provide social activities for older people at a time in their lives when their social circles are diminishing. It has experience organising over 900 regular social gatherings across the UK for 8,500 older guests, supported by 14,000 volunteers. However, in response to coronavirus they suspended social gatherings and created a telephone befriending service for older people called Call Companions which has been well utilised.

For more information regarding any of these Be Connected initiatives, or if you would like the Microsoft Teams login details please email the Resident Involvement & Wellbeing Team on [email protected] or via phone at 07523 943 501.