Contact the Elderly grant will help fund tea parties for older people

Posted: 10th August 2017

Isolated and lonely elderly people across Kent and the rest of the UK are being invited to a series of monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties with Contact the Elderly, thanks to our recent £75,000 grant.

Contact the Elderly is dedicated to tackling loneliness and social isolation among older people. Supported by a network of volunteers, the charity organises monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people, aged 75 and over, who live alone.

Each older guest is collected from their home by a volunteer driver and is taken to a volunteer host’s home, where they join a small group for tea and companionship. The tea parties bring people of all ages together, develop fulfilling friendships and support networks, and give everyone involved something to look forward to each month.

This grant will play an essential role in long-term funding for Contact the Elderly’s National Support Officer, who helps run 55 of the charity’s tea parties benefitting around 450 older guests, as well as coordinating over 700 of the charity’s 10,000 volunteers who help make the tea parties happen every month.

The need for action to help isolated elderly people is clear from recent statistics showing that a million older people have not spoken to anyone in the last month. There is also mounting evidence about the effect of loneliness on mental and physical health and wellbeing, with lonely people having a 64 per cent increased risk of developing dementia.

Cliff Rich, Acting CEO at Contact the Elderly, said:

“We are incredibly grateful to West Kent Freemasons for their generous grant which will continue to help us to reach more lonely and isolated elderly people. The act of attending a tea party is simple but profound and can make an enormous difference to someone who might not have spoken to anyone for weeks.”

West Kent Freemason, Mark Estaugh, visited the charity to find out more:

“We are very pleased to be able to support Contact the Elderly with their wonderful work helping some of the most vulnerable people in our community. The isolation of elderly people is a very serious problem that’s set to get much worse as our whole population ages.”

Get in touch with Contact the Elderly

Local residents interested in attending Contact the Elderly’s tea parties as an older guest, referring potential guests, or volunteering to help, can contact the charity’s National Office on Freephone 0800 716543




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Charity Commission in contact with 41 charities during election period

The regulator has published an overview of issues arising from the 2017 general election

Forty-one charities were in contact with the Charity Commission because of issues arising during this year’s general election campaign, the regulator has said.

In an overview of charities’ campaigning and political activity during the most recent election period, which ran from 18 April to 8 June, the commission said that 28 out of the 41 cases it dealt with arose from concerns raised by members of the public or the regulator proactively identifying concerns from media reports.

A further 13 charities contacted the commission to seek advice.

In comparison, 39 charities were in touch with the commission during the 2015 general election.

The majority of the charities the commission dealt with during the most recent election had incomes exceeding £1m a year, the regulator said, and the 41 cases included concerns relating to all the major political parties.

The Charity Commission’s guidance on political activity says that charities must stress their political independence and campaigning should be undertaken only in furtherance of a charity’s charitable purposes.

A number of charities also expressed concerns about the impact of the lobbying act on their ability to campaign during the most recent election, specifically its spending limits on joint campaigning and registration with the Electoral Commission.

Among the charities contacted by the regulator during the 2017 election was the right-wing think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, in relation to allegedly partisan publications.

The IEA was issued with formal regulatory advice about two publications, one suggesting Conservative manifesto policy proposals and another criticising the Labour manifesto.

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Another two cases highlighted by the commission in its report today is Unity Group Wales, which was displaying Labour Party posters in its high-street centre in Swansea, and the National Council of Hindu Temples, which issued an email to members suggesting support for the Conservative Party.

Unity Group Wales immediately removed the posters when contacted by the commission and made a statement expressing its political neutrality and independence.

The National Council of Hindu Temples initially denied its email was partisan and the commission said it considered an official warning until the charity decided to send a second email saying it was politically neutral.

David Holdsworth, chief operating officer of the Charity Commission, said: “Charities have a strong and proud tradition of campaigning and being at the forefront of social policy. Many charities can and did find practical, valid ways to engage in beneficiary-focused and effective campaigning and political activity in the run-up to this general election.

“However, our report does illustrate that some basic silly mistakes that could have been avoided by reading and following our guidance continue to be made by charities.”

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