'˜We don't want our elderly to feel isolated'

A fundraising campaign has been launched to help tackle social isolation and loneliness amongst elderly people.
Support: The campaign is raising funds to help Howden Clough provide more activities for older people.Support: The campaign is raising funds to help Howden Clough provide more activities for older people.
Support: The campaign is raising funds to help Howden Clough provide more activities for older people.

BatleySmile CIC wants to support the running of more activities, including craft, history and music workshops, at Howden Clough Community Centre to boost the health and wellbeing of older residents.

And it has set up a campaign on online crowdfunding platform Global Giving to raise money for the sessions.

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Mark Griffin, of BatleySmile, said: “With many thanks to some really generous folk, we’ve made a terrific start and raised more than £2,000 in the first couple of weeks.

SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.
SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.

“I was talking to the chief executive officer of Global Giving Eleanor Harrison, who is a former Heckmondwike Grammar School pupil, about BatleySmile when she came home a few weeks ago.

“She inspired me and gave BatleySmile the confidence to have a go at setting up a fundraising page on the site to support a project in the community.”

The group chose to support The Mission at Howden Clough to help older people build friendships and participate in activities.

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A summary of the project on the fundraisng page reads: “We seek to make our activities accessible to older residents and their carers. By building confidence through participation we seek to reduce isolation and loneliness.”

SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.
SMILES: It will help tackle loneliness.

BatleySmile also hopes to use the website to raise money for other projects in the future.

Mr Griffin said: “We joined the Global Giving Gateway Winter Challenge, which means we have until December 19 to get £2,500, from a minimum of 50 donors, for the project.

“If we reach this target we can become a permanent member of the website, meaning we can use it as a way of raising money for other community projects in our area in the future.”

Visit bit.ly/TheMissionGlobalGiving to donate.