Over 35,000 people over the age of 16 (roughly one in six adults) live alone in the Potteries, and Age UK research shows that thousands of people in the city haven’t had a conversation with a friend or family member for over a month. Statistics show that over 9 million people in the UK – almost a fifth of the population – say they are always or often lonely and that two-fifths all older people (about 3.9 million) say the television is their main company. Loneliness and social isolation isn’t something that only affects older people, research by the Co-operative and British Red Cross shows that almost half (49%) of young mums aged 18-25 always or often feel lonely and that more than 80% of mums under 30 say they have met their friends less since having their child.
Between Pearl Academy and Sanctus, 300-400 people access our services weekly. Sanctus has been supporting asylum seekers and refugees in Stoke on Trent for the past 10 years, initially based at St Marks Church, and now due to renovation works, operating from YMCA North Staffordshire. Sanctus is a completely volunteer led and resourced organisation. Pearl Academy has been working with the wider BAME community for a similar amount of time and we operate out of custom-designed industrial facilities in Joiners Square industrial estate and several other locations across the city.
There are over 1000 asylum seekers living in the city, some in dispersed accommodation, and some in temporary hotels. One of the major challenges for people is isolation and loneliness, particularly for those who have mental health issues, depression, anxiety about their immigration status, and the long wait for their applications to be assessed/appealed etc. Sanctus provide a drop in with food bank, a help desk where we can signpost to other services, arrange solicitor appointments, help with contacting the home office, provide emergency cash and supermarket vouchers etc. We also support people in moving on into their first homes, by helping to source furniture, carpets, household goods etc. For those who are destitute and their support has been withdrawn, we have 3 rooms available to ensure they have a safe place to sleep.
We currently work in partnership with Sanctus and the YMCA. One of the things we have always been passionate about, is to provide volunteer opportunities for the people who come to us for support, and over the years they have been a tremendous support to us and to their fellow attendees to the project. We were looking to get people to volunteer to help with different areas of our already existing project:
- Food bank, sorting and distributing food, helping with supermarket surplus pick ups, preparing the hall and clearing up afterwards.
- Food preparation for our events
- Supervising refreshments at the drop in
- Helping to organise and distribute donated items, such as furniture, clothing, toys, household items, as well as ebay listings
- Interpreting for other attendees to the drop in
- Manning the helpdesk, to give advice to immigrants and signpost them to legal aid
- Drivers for our moving initiative
- Carrying out maintenance on our venues
- Visiting individuals in their home
- Arranging trips to take people out
- Organising social events
- Helping out in shops/businesses across the city.
This not only assisted us, but also the volunteers themselves, giving them opportunities to speak to and interact with more people, and giving them reason to get out more and socialise. To better utilise their skills, we had some of the volunteers take courses such as first aid, health & safety, equality & diversity
