Could you help people in your community who are lonely or isolated?

The aim of the Community Connector role is to support people affected by social isolation and loneliness and to help them gain confidence and to reconnect to their community in partnership with existing and new partner organisations. We will place the person at the centre of what we do and help them by offering positive encouragement, practical help and emotional support, for up to three months, depending on their needs.

Typical tasks include:

• Being aware of and keeping up to date with local community services appropriate to our service users with support from the Community Connector Manager.
• Supporting lonely & socially isolated service users to build confidence, self-esteem and to regain independence
• Listening to people’s needs, aspirations and concerns and co-creating a step plan to ensure the person meets their aims. This may involve providing advice on regular, healthy nutrition and hydration and managing hygiene.
• Supporting people to attend local community services suitable to their needs, helping them identify other activities in the area and going with them as necessary. This enables access to various health/medical appointments, social activities, shopping, transport and other community services. This may involve travelling with service users or transporting them using your own vehicle where appropriate.
• Offering signposting to British Red Cross and other organisations’ services
• Maintaining contact with the service user to monitor progress against goals and phase out contact as loneliness and social isolation is alleviated.

Full training will be given for this role. If interested please email volunteer@canterbury.ac.uk. For more information on the Red Cross see www.redcross.org.uk

For other roles take a look at the Canterbury Volunteering website.

RD IL Community Connector Support Volunteer

RD IL Mobility Aids Spoke Volunteer