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.

James Wild, MP for North West Norfolk has chosen West Norfolk Befriending to be one of the three local West Norfolk charities he raises money for when he runs the London Marathon on Sunday October 2nd 2022.

James previously ran the Marathon in 2021 and says “After last year’s race I said I wouldn’t run the marathon again but the opportunity to raise funds to support brilliant local charities was too good to pass up. During training sessions and on race day, the motivation of helping charities supporting women and children affected by domestic abuse, tackling loneliness, and helping deaf and hard of hearing people will drive me on“

James was the fastest English MP to run the Marathon in 2021, and is aiming to complete the course in 3 hours 30 minutes at his second attempt.

West Norfolk Befriending’s CEO Pippa May says “West Norfolk Befriending is delighted that James has chosen to support them. It will mean that we can work with more isolated older people in West Norfolk. West Norfolk Befriending are particularly pleased to be chosen, as this year they are celebrating 20 years of working with isolated older people and their carers in West Norfolk.“

We wish James a safe and speedy run, and thank him for his generous support.

James is also raising money for West Norfolk Deaf Association and Pandora Project, who help women and children affected by domestic abuse.

We are delighted to have been awarded funding to explore wills and legacy fundraising at West Norfolk Befriending. This would be a new source of funding for us and would help to ensure the longevity of the charity. It would help the financial sustainability of our work supporting socially isolated older people.

Through this project we will work with a fundraising consultant, connect with local businesses and engage the community. Supported by Norfolk Community Foundation through Your Big Idea.

For the first time since the pandemic we gathered clients, volunteers, staff and trustees together to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.

It was a lovely day, the music was lovely and what a nice room!

A client

Thank you to the Norfolk Community Foundation for supporting this event through the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Fund. Thankyou to the The Filling Station for the yummy sandwiches, scones and cakes. We were treated to a wonderful performance by Heacham Songsters with lots of opportunity to sing along.

So many of our volunteers helped with giving lifts, making tea and setting up and packing up the hall – we couldn’t have done it without you, thank you!

Thankyou to Your Local Paper for some lovely photos and write up. We’re already looking forward to our next event!

Recently, Pippa May, West Norfolk Befriending’s Chief Executive was delighted to attend the weekly session of Heacham Songsters and be presented with a cheque for £300. This donation will be used towards our next social event for all our isolated clients.

We are always delighted when a local group has raised money to support our vital work with socially isolated older people and their unpaid family carers.

The Heacham Songsters are Back in Business

For many years the Heacham Songsters have been presenting concerts to local community groups in and around the area, including residential establishments etc with any donations handed at year end to local charities.  We were not functioning during the covid pandemic but now we are raring and ready to go again. If your local community group etc would like us to present a concert for you, please telephone Peter Francis on 01485 534031.  Please leave a message if there is no answer.

December is always a busy month for us here at West Norfolk Befriending. Here’s a little round up of what we’ve been up to for Christmas this year.

Thankyou to our super volunteer Dot and her grandson Ben who decorated our tree in the Dersingham Christmas Tree Festival – we love the homemade decorations and look at that star! The festival was at St Nicholas’ Church from 3rd to 23rd December.

We received 70 handmade & finely decorated Christmas cakes generously donated by our friends & supporters at King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club. We have now personally delivered a cake and other goodies to each of our clients – it’s a huge job and one we love! There’s even more photos of the cakes in this Lynn News article.

We were delighted to be able to have a small Covid-safe volunteer meeting. It was lovely to see each other and celebrate a successful year of befriending. Our volunteers have been making doorstop deliveries to our clients. They received a christmas cake (donated by King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club), packet of tea (donated by Morrisons King’s Lynn), mince pies, crackers and biscuits (donated by King’s Lynn Tesco), puzzle book, small tin of shortbread, pen and notepad from Lily.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022.

The National Lottery community funded project Care Home Connectors will come to end on 31^st July 2021.

This successful two year project connected with isolated people in care homes and their carers.

It was delivered at four care homes, The Grange, Downham Market, Goodwins Hall King’s Lynn, Fridham Rest Home at Heacham and Burman House at Terrington St John.

We worked with West Norfolk Carers and Friend in Deed, who delivered sessions as part of the project. Thankyou to all the volunteers who supported this work.

Sadly the pandemic stopped all delivery in the care homes but Care Home Connectors maintained support to the care homes. We delivered Easter hampers, worked with Angela from Norfolk Linking Lives and pupils at St Martins Primary School at Shouldham and All Saints Stoke Ferry primary school deliver festive cheer at Christmas, we also delivered cards and personal protection equipment during the summer and beginning of the pandemic.

Amanda Tickner, Care Home Connectors Project Coordinator, will be taking up a new post at West Norfolk Befriending.

We are really pleased to have made links and connections within the community and hope that we will be able to work to reduce isolation in care homes again in the future.

We are starting a new and exciting project allowing us to increase the number of services we can offer socially isolated older people in West Norfolk.

Following a pilot project of telephone befriending last year we now successfully deliver this as a regular service. Our new pilot project is to set up and test email befriending to meet the needs of isolated people who are unable to use the telephone or would like to communicate via email.

We are working to expand the range of services we offer, ensuring the organisation’s future and a more holistic approach to helping ease isolation. Our future aim is to offer all of our clients a choice of face to face, telephone, email or digital befriending allowing us to help more clients and reduce our waiting times. If you would like more information about our work with clients please have a look at our What We Do page. If you would like more information about our Volunteering with us, please get in touch.

This pilot project is supported by the Norfolk Response & Recovery Fund awarded by the Norfolk Community Foundation.

We have delivered Easter Hampers to residents and staff at the four care homes that we work with as part of the Care Home Connectors project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

The hampers were made up of activity packs, a soft bunny, lots of chocolates and sunflowers. Local balloon company called Wonderland Balloons donated the cellophane and bows. Care homes are Goodwins Hall, Fridhem Rest Home, Burman House and Downham Grange.

The residents and staff alike were very happy to receive them. With care homes being closed for so long due to Covid -19 it was so nice to be able to visit them and bring a little joy, and sunshine. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

For the last ten years we have regularly been donated Christmas cakes for our clients by the King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club, and we are very lucky that they have again donated cakes to us. Despite the group not being able to physically meet all year they have made, decorated and donated 70 cakes for our clients.

This year our clients have received a very different service from us due to restrictions on face to face visits and social events. We know that many will be feeling very isolated and low this Christmas. So this year we have decided to expand on our Christmas gift to our clients, thanks to donations and funds raised from previous fundraising efforts.

Clients are receiving:

• Christmas Cake (made, decorated and donated by the King’s Lynn Sugarcrafts Club)
• Small box of tea bags and carrier bags ready for a socially distanced delivery (Donated by Morrisons King’s Lynn)
• Christmas Card
• Puzzle book
• Tin of shortbread
• Lily pen and notepad

Volunteers and staff are delivering the Christmas gifts to clients over the next couple of weeks in time for Christmas.

‘This cake look incredible, it is so generous.’ (Anonymous Client)

‘I’m really going to enjoy looking at everything in this bag. Thankyou very much.’ (Anonymous Client)

Well done and thankyou to Norfolk Linking Lives and the pupils at St Martins Primary School at Shouldham and All Saints Stoke Ferry primary school who made these wonderful Christmas cards. We will be distributing them to the four Care Homes that we work with as part of Care Home Connectors: Downham Grange Care Home, Burman House Care Home, Goodwins Hall Care Home and Fridhem Rest Home, bringing festive cheer to around 180 residents!