The Know Your Neighbourhood - Volunteering Programme

The Know Your Neighbourhood - Volunteering Programme

The aim of this programme, kindly supported by Point North, was to engage and recruit local volunteers to help combat loneliness and social isolation across the Consett and wider County Durham community.As part of this programme we facilitated a ‘Consett Area Community Hub’, that engaged local young people around a range of activities in order to reduce loneliness and to increase regular community engagement and volunteering opportunities. The activities included creative arts, drama, cooking, life skills and environmental activities for local young people of primary and secondary age. They were supported by trained local volunteers and members of Building Self-Belief CIO staff, in a local community settings.We also trained community volunteers to become ‘Community Youth Ambassadors’ to support those in the local community, particularly older people, around the use of email, Apps and social media in order to reduce chronic loneliness by increasing their online skills. We held weekly community teas to support the development of new skills and also to meet on a social basis.Thank you to Point North for their kind support and all of our amazing volunteers across the duration of this work!Watch our volunteer reel here!