Every minute counts … weekly club run by volunteers is combatting loneliness
Press Release
Runcorn: December 19th, 2024: As a national spotlight is being shone on mental health and combatting loneliness through Good Morning Britain’s ‘1 Million Minutes’ campaign, a small group of volunteers at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn, Cheshire, are a prime example of just what can be achieved by giving up a little time to help others.
Although primarily a business centre, The Heath is also a critical community facility for local residents. Staff at the award-winning Park have created ‘Eat@TheHeath’, a club for the over fifties which has become a focal gathering point for companionship, friendship and fun as the antidote to loneliness and isolation.
The club stages weekly gatherings including entertainment, monthly luncheon-dances and special Christmas functions with daytrips organised during the year too. The Heath also has a community garden managed by volunteers that provides a peaceful and tranquil space.
During a visit to The Heath earlier this year Clare Hayward MBE, The High Sheriff of Cheshire, praised the ‘amazing’ volunteers who run the Eat@TheHeath Community Group saying it was important to recognise their efforts because of the time they give up running the popular community programme and ‘their energy, vision and passion’.
The Heath’s voluntary initiative is run by two members of Park’s Community Team, Eileen Miller and Alison Albion, four other members of staff who help out and a community police officer. They are supported by a small group of volunteers who between them dedicate 250,000 minutes each year. The club’s ethos revolves around self-help. Initially, it encourages people to attend to combat their own loneliness and then to engage with each other to cope with isolation and mental health issues.
Alison Albion, who helps to coordinate the programme, says: “In effect each of our own members supports the volunteering programme by themselves offering support to each other. All our members are volunteers themselves in their own right. If you include all the minutes our members contribute, I’m sure our small organisation alone would smash the 1 Million Minutes target.
“No membership is needed, people just come along each Wednesday for a couple of hours to chat, drink tea or coffee, eat cake and play games. Slowly but surely friendships develop and strengthen and it’s a place where people feel they belong like a wider family.”
She adds: “As Good Morning Britain’s wonderful 1 million minutes campaign demonstrates; it is incredible what can be achieved when people give up a little of their time to volunteer.”
Alison says their Christmas programme is such a success that it has been turned into a two-part experience spread over two weeks for 170 local people : “The first Christmas celebration on December 11th was a mammoth task to cook and serve the meal, organise the raffle and entertain everyone during the lunch with a playlist of tunes. A week later on December 18th we held part-two where our volunteers set up a party for groups who collaborated to bring in a shared buffet for their table, play games and be entertained by their favourite artist, ‘Elvis’. By the end of the afternoon everyone feels like they’ve been out to a nightclub and had a time to remember.”
Alison explains: “These events require lots of preparations beforehand to make sure everything runs smoothly, and everyone’s needs and wishes are catered for – table seating plans, making decorations, huge supermarket shops for presents, fizz and everything to go on the tables.
“On the big day before the meal, the empty events hall at The Heath is transformed into a welcoming club with a Christmassy atmosphere. Members eagerly gather outside half an hour before the doors open dressed up in sparkly tops, fancy bowties and funny hats, it isn’t just the children and grandchildren who can have fun. Our members are teenagers in disguise. Eat@TheHeath is a youth club for the not so youthful! “ Alison says their volunteer programme is a format that can be replicated anywhere when you have four supporting pillars to create a club that combats loneliness and creates a community where everyone matters and has a sense of belonging.
- “Firstly, there needs to be a venue. Without the free room that is donated to Eat@The Heath each week it would not be possible to run our club.
- “Secondly, there needs to be a range of staff/volunteers that are available to bring charisma, kindness, warmth, people-skills, clarity of organisation and a determination to go the extra mile to make a difference.
- “Thirdly, there has to be a need for the club. Judging by the 110 members that attend weekly, the 140 who come to eat and dance on the last Wednesday of each month and the 170 who attend our Christmas events, there is definitely a need in the local and wider area. The club has never advertised – all promotion is by word of mouth.
- “Finally, the club members themselves are THE important strength. Eat@TheHeath has been the catalyst to bring them together where new friendships have been forged but they support each other not only at The Heath events but also increasingly outside the club too. It is all about inclusion, participation, engagement and having a place to meet – collectively, this is the solution to combatting loneliness.”
Alison says: “It’s a recipe that works. Although our volunteers are always on hand to serve, help or just listen, our individual club members support each other too, simply by sharing news, listening to and helping each other physically and mentally. Members have become aware of the difficulties other members may have such as coping with bereavements, losing confidence post-Covid or feeling trapped and not wanting to get out of the home. Through our club they meet for a coffee, use our communal garden space or meet up for dances, theatre or days out. To ensure anyone can attend, we even have access to a minibus, driven by a volunteer, to ferry less able bodied people to and from events.
“Some members might have been having a bad day and feel tearful. Not a problem – it’s OK to say how you’re feeling, and hugs are always available. Some of our members have been diagnosed with dementia. At Eat@TheHeath the many members without dementia graciously, without official guidance, provide a wider support framework in the room by listening to, agreeing with, laughing with and hugging anyone who might be confused or forgetful. Everyone fits in and is accepted. It’s become one big team.
“We have members who have bounced back from bereavement, finding a new chapter in their lives that they hadn’t predicted. Depression is another demon to be tackled. Sharing feelings, accepting human contact and distraction all weaken the power of depression. We’re often told that people are very grateful to our club because our volunteers and members provide exactly those things and are helping each other battle with any mental health issues.”
Alison adds: “GMB’s 1 million minutes campaign has helped tremendously to put the spotlight on loneliness and mental health. Our club shows what those precious minutes given over to volunteering can achieve and the difference they can make to the lives of so many. I suppose loneliness is like a pet – It is not just for Christmas, to combat loneliness it has to be through engagement all year round.”
Media Contact: Paul Smith – paul@paulsmithassociates.co.uk Mobile: 07771 623007
