Organisations across the Wrexham County Borough area are being encouraged to apply for the new Befriending Funding Scheme.
The Welsh Government, in partnership with Age Cymru, have provided grants to local authority partners as part of the Friend in Need programme. And Wrexham Council are offering this grant to organisations who meet its aims.
A befriending scheme is an initiative that aims to reach out to the socially isolated or lonely people in the community. The money for this grant would be used to provide a new befriending service or enhance an existing befriending scheme.
This scheme aims to increase social networks, to combat loneliness in the community such as digital channels, creating connections on different platforms or promoting existing services to the target demographic.
The fund will be administered and monitored by AVOW – the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham.
For further information on the fund, organisations are encouraged to read the guidance on the AVOW website at www.avow.org and contact AVOW Funding Officer, Nigel Davies, by email on Nigel.Davies@avow.org.
Simon Baynes MP said:
“I fully support this initiative and think that it’s a great way to reach out to some of the loneliest people in our communities. Social isolation and loneliness is a serious problem and has only become more serious throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. So it’s good to see an initiative that will try and tackle the issue. I strongly encourage relevant organisations to apply for this grant.”