Over the past few weeks West Norfolk Befriending have been visiting the Freebridge communities around West and North Norfolk. We have been introduced to the residents who live on these estates and talked about the work that WNB do. In all instances we have had a very warm welcome and met some wonderful people, both residents and staff.

We have been introduced to people of all ages and had some very interesting conversations. Our visits have resulted in some of the older residents contacting us to enquire about the services we provide. Despite these neighbourhoods being focused on providing a close-knit community, some residents still feel isolated for reasons such as no family close by or being immobile due to poor health.

Where those residents have met our criteria, we have made follow up calls and placed them on our waiting list with the intention of finding a suitable volunteer to start the befriending process.

We have also had referrals made by the support advisors and suggestions of potential new clients from other residents.

We would like to thank the Housing Support Advisors for arranging these visits.

We held our first coffee morning at Orchard Close, Dersingham on Tuesday 7th March. This is the first one for 3 years due to the pandemic. It was a smaller affair to our usual coffee events but a huge success. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces but also some new ones. We had a stalls selling, books, jigsaws, cakes and gifts. The raffle proved to be very popular with a large range of prizes. All the stalls had plenty of interest and the room was full of chatter and laughter. Plenty of coffee and tea was drunk and we had a number of enquiries about our service and volunteering.

We raised over £250 which was a fantastic amount and will help to keep our services on offer to our communities.

Local photographer, Jon Clifton, has been busy designing a new calendar ready for 2024. Featuring stunning photographs of sunsets taken at renown beauty spots along our coastline, some of the photos are instantly recognisable.

Individual dates are boxed with plenty of space to write those all important birthdays and anniversaries. The calendar is spiral wired bound, A3 in size when opened.

Calendars will be signed on the reverse and orders hand packed at his home in Snettisham, West Norfolk.

Jon has committed to donating £1.50 from the sale of each calendar to a number of local charities. West Norfolk Befriending is one of the chosen charities. When buying, the purchaser can pick their preferred charity from the list. If you would like to pre-order one of these beautiful calendars and help raise funds for WNB along the way then click on the link below. The calendars cost £12.99 including postage to UK addresses. Delivery is expected to start in September.

To place an order or for more information go to www.joncliftonphotography.com and click on the Shop tab.