Community Plus Fund

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Aspire Creating Communities, a Huddersfield-based charity supporting the over 55s, successfully bid for a grant of £3,780 to fund a project called Re-Connect.

In partnership with TSL and Community Plus, Aspire were able to recruit a sign language volunteer which meant that 59-year-old AJ who is profoundly deaf, could make friends at the weekly group session. V, a Pakistani gentleman aged 84, had suffered a stroke and was struggling to make social connections.

Since joining an Aspire group, V said: “I feel at home here, I have friends and I can share joy with them for the first time in years.” Another attendee at one of Aspire’s seven weekly sessions in various locations around Huddersfield, said: “I now have a life again!”.

V Aspire Group Attendee

It’s not just people who attend the sessions who benefit from Aspire and from the project funded by a Community Plus grant. Based on the minimum wage, Re-Connect saved more than £6,500 in time generously gifted by volunteers who have also benefited from involvement with the project. And in a spin-off venture, Aspire have now appointed an Outreach Worker to support volunteers in their role connecting with people via home visits and well-being phone calls.