Awards accolade for phone charity
Community Network named runner-up in national charity award for its Seafarers Link project
The phone charity, Community Network, has been named runner-up in a national charity award for its Seafarers Link project. Sponsored by the Ashden Trust, the SupportActionNet Awards received 109 nominations and are for services, projects or examples of support work that have delivered outstanding outcomes for vulnerable people.
The brainchild of Community Network’s former CEO Terry Veitch, Seafarers Link was set up earlier this year in response to research carried out by the Maritime Charities Funding Group which found that many former seafarers (trawler men and sailors from the Royal and Merchant services) have great difficulty adapting to life on shore following retirement. The research highlighted how this engendered feelings of social exclusion and loneliness, which often lead to depression and other health problems.
Seafarers Link tackles the problem by linking up retired seafarers through telephone support and friendship groups, and is free to all former seafarers wishing to participate. The phone groups provide the opportunity for them to make new friends, engage in new activities and feel less isolated. The project uses Community Network’s telephone conferencing system while members of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Proramme (RSVP) identify facilitators and participants. Following the success of a pilot project in Hull, other groups have been set up on Merseyside and in Wales.
The judges commented: "I loved the thoughtfulness behind this project; seeing a very specific and unrecognised need and responding so appropriately to it. It is how the world changes, through the building of grass roots communities, sharing histories and building friendships. Wonderful!"
"Innovative in that it tackles a client group that I’ve never heard mentioned before but must suffer terrible isolation. The genius is that it uses something that people already have – a telephone. Also it is spreading and therefore is evidently having an impact."
Community Network is currently setting up new groups in Portsmouth and Plymouth aimed at the Royal Marines, Royal Navy and WRNS. Anyone wishing to join these groups or for further information about Seafarers Link should contact Community Network’s Social Inclusion Officer Sue Robinson on 01373 451569 or sue@community-network.org
