Look Out For Each Other
Marmalade Trust aims to raise awareness of loneliness and helps people to connect,” says the charity’s founder Amy Perrin. “We run various projects across the Bristol region and also the national Loneliness Awareness Week each June. People’s health and wellbeing can significantly suffer through feelings of loneliness, but it is fixable, all they need is some suppor t to identify what is missing and find new social connections. It is a situation that is so easy to address.
“People can feel par ticularly isolated during the dark December and Januar y months. This year most of us will have experienced some level of loneliness and separation and while we’ve all got that understanding and knowledge, there is a real oppor tunity to help others to bring back that connection.
“In our region we have 200 volunteers who are going to be doing face to face (socially distanced) visits to deliver Christmas hampers to those who will be on their own or who have been alone for a long period of time. We are also looking at doing a meal deliver y and we are phoning people, matching ever yone with volunteers who will call them during December and
Januar y. We are also really excited about our 24-day connection advent calendar; ever y day, people will open a door and find another activity or something that makes them feel par t of the community. This includes a dial-in choir, a stor ytelling afternoon, letters from school children and postcards with which people can send in requests to their local radio station. We really want to make the people we suppor t feel as connected and valued as possible.
“Usually there’s a lot of messaging around in the media on the television which shows people with families and all together and a sense of ever yone being really sociable and busy with par ties. That can feel quite over whelming for someone with limited social contact. I think it’s really impor tant that we help people feel more connected during this time. And ever yone can do something, even a small gesture can be so valuable.
“We can all just look out for each other.” www.marmaladetrust.org 07566 244 788