Contact the Elderly

Companionship for frail and desperately isolated elderly people.

Covent Garden is home to a unique national charity which puts volunteers in touch with elderly people for some social contact one Sunday afternoon a month.

Contact the Elderly (reg charity 244681) was founded in 1965 by Trevor Lyttleton who was struck by the extreme loneliness of his elderly neighbours in central London. The project began by taking lonely, elderly people out for tea on Sunday afternoons to another volunteer's house. Trevor realised that a one-off outing was not the answer: "A one-off treat can reinforce the feeling of isolation and an elderly person who returns home to four bare walls with nothing on the calendar to look forward to, can feel desperately lonely."

Trevor's project soon attracted the attention of the media and MPs and received a grant from the Home Office in 1974. The charity was featured on nationwide television and appointed its first full-time Director. Since then, many local groups have been set up by local volunteers, who receive support and publicity from Contact's head office in Covent Garden.

Contact's formula works anywhere: in inner city areas, villages and wherever elderly people live on their own. An isolated elderly person is collected by car by a volunteer and taken to the home of a host to meet other elderly people, other volunteers and the host family one Sunday afternoon a month. New friendships are made and regular contact is maintained, giving elderly people something to look forward to each month.

Volunteers come from all walks of life and are of all ages. They are co-ordinated through Contact Groups across the UK. Are you interested in volunteering?

What's needed:
1. DRIVERS for 4-5 hours once a month on a Sunday to collect one or two elderly persons and take them to a host's home
2. HOSTS willing to give afternoon tea in their home to a small group of elderly people on one Sunday a year ... the only requirements are a large teapot and a downstairs toilet!

   A few hours each month make all the difference to a lonely, elderly person in your community.

   If you would like to volunteer as a driver or host, please telephone Contact the Elderly:
   Freephone 0800 716 543
   Fax 020 7379 5781
   http://www.contact-the-elderly.org/
   Contact the Elderly
   15 Henrietta Street
   Covent Garden
   London WC2E 8QH

   © Covent Garden Community Association , 29^th January 2000

   
    
   
    
   

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