Join our Pen Pal Scheme
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic Healthwatch Stockport had a number of volunteers sign up to help buy and deliver shopping, collect and deliver medication and become volunteer drivers for the food bank amongst other efforts.
During this time, we noticed there were many lonely, isolated and vulnerable people out there, many of them older people with little or no family nearby. To help combat the loneliness Healthwatch Stockport decided to set up a pen pal scheme whereby people in the community could volunteer to write to a pen pal in the community.
Local organisations have been referring people in the community to the scheme and now we were hoping to include care home residents who may want to share their life experiences, hobbies and interests with people outside of their care home. This may be something residents could take part in with a family member.
If one of your residents is interested in becoming a pen pal, we will send them some FREEPOST envelopes, a pen and some writing paper along with a Pen Pal Good Practice Guide to help them get started. To ensure everyone is safe and no personal details need to be exchanged all letters are exchanged via the Healthwatch Stockport office.
This is a great project that was set up during the pandemic, it is such a good feeling to see people communicating the old fashioned way. We all now have one thing in common and that is Covid-19 - it has taken some of our loved ones and we really want to make sure no one feels isolated in this day and age
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