Funding boost helps befriending service expand across the region
- gracebell7
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
A Durham based befriending service, helping older and vulnerable people across the region overcome loneliness and isolation, is set for expansion thanks to a £74k funding boost.
Silver Friends, an in-person befriending scheme which launched last year in County Durham, has secured £64k from the Legal & General Health Equity Fund to roll out its support across West Northumberland.
Ran by social housing provider Karbon Homes, Silver Friends has also received an additional £10k grant from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s ‘Know Your Neighbourhood’ fund, to continue its work in North Durham.
Philip Pollard, Assistant Director of Customer and Community Engagement at Karbon Homes, said: “It’s been a fantastic year for Silver Friends, which has provided hundreds of North Durham residents with an opportunity to connect with one another and their wider community."
“It’s success so far demonstrates the need for services of this kind in our communities, and we’re pleased to not only be able to continue the service in North Durham and help even more users, but to be able to expand it to West Northumberland and create social opportunities for hundreds more residents in the region.”
Silver Friends is an expansion of Karbon’s successful Silver Talk telephone befriending service, introduced to help people who wanted to connect face to face with their local community, through a calendar of social events in community venues.
The service began as a pilot in December 2023 in North Durham, thanks to a £42k funding grant from the ‘Know Your Neighbourhood’ fund, and since launching 246 users have benefitted from its events, which have been made possible thanks to the support of 22 volunteers.
After North Durham, West Northumberland is home to Silver Talk’s second largest concentration of telephone befriending service users, which is why it was chosen for the expansion.
And with Karbon’s strong links with the third sector in West Northumberland, as well as companionship the service can provide additional help through signposting users to community support services and volunteering opportunities.
Roger Jeffries from Consett has benefitted from the face-to-face Silver Friends events, and has started volunteering with the group to support the running and help more people to benefit.
Roger said: “I live on my own and it can be quite soul destroying not talking to people. Silver Friends was a great chance to get out and mix with others and attending the groups have really helped me.
“I’ve started encouraging other people similar to me to come along to the groups. It’s something that makes your life worthwhile and it can help to extend it too. And I’ve started helping with the running of our sessions, making coffees, welcoming new people and just mucking in where I can.”
The £3m Health Equity Fund is a collaboration between Legal & General, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, and the UCL Institute of Health Equity. It aims to support community projects across the UK which address the root causes of poor health.
Loneliness has been identified as a significant health risk, particularly for older adults, and is associated with a decline in health-related quality of life and cognitive function.
Befriending services like Silver Talk and Silver Friends can be an invaluable intervention for improving the health outcomes of individuals living alone or facing isolation.
