The purpose of the tackling loneliness campaign is to reduce people’s feelings of isolation and loneliness – connecting people together and making valuable services accessible to them through community transport.

Usually, when people think of Community Transport (CT), they assume it is only for the elderly and disabled. However, CT caters to a wider range of people. The Tackling Loneliness project aims to improve social inclusion and mobility for people who may be isolated or disadvantaged in their access to transport. There are in fact many community groups that
CT is a lifeline— not just for the social value, but to help them get to essential medical appointments,
and visit friends. CT plugs in the gap left by commercial transport inaccessible to millions across the UK.

We asked our project partners a series of questions to find out how they identified and supported lonely, or potentially lonely, individuals, depending on the demographic of their beneficiaries. The responses have been collated as follows:

Identifying & Supporting Lonely Individuals

If you would like some tips and hints on setting up a Tackling Loneliness project, or something of a similar nature where you will be reporting on your service users, here are a few things to consider, based upon the process we used and the lessons learnt along the way:

Download useful tips on setting up a project of this nature.

Download More Resource List and Additional Reading on the subject of loneliness and isolation – this list is by no means complete or exhaustive but will help extend your knowledge in this area and grow your understanding of the subject.

Workshops

As part of the Grants+ element of the project we provided the pilots with the opportunity to attend workshops on subjects that they felt would be most helpful to them, as part of their involvement in the project, as well as for their organisations as a whole.

Below are YouTube videos of the presentations as well as additional resources on the which you may find helpful:

Volunteer Recruitment

Advice and ideas on strategies for recruiting and retaining volunteers.

More Presentation on Volunteer Recruitment:

1. CWVA’s Presentation
2. Toolkit for Trustee
3. Volunteer Recruitment and Useful Links

Social Media

Tips and insights on how to communicate with your audiences and what social media strategies to use.

Additional Resources:

1. CWVA’s Presentation
2. Helpful Links

Steps to Successful Fundraising

CTA’s Michelle Clarke, Wales Transport Strategy Lead – advice on how to put together a funding bid, things to consider and links to help you search for grants.

Additional Resources:

1. Presentation
2. Case study – measuring the impact, covering 3 key elements
3. Case for support – a framework for your application
4. SWOT analysis – looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats 

Data Collection & Analysis

DfT’s evaluation consultants NatCen provide an insight into their evaluation process for the project and CTA’s England Director provides some top tips for data gathering.

Additional Resources:

1. CTA’s Data Gathering Presentation
2. DfT’s Evaluation Process