Omagh befriending project launched for older people

REDUCING loneliness and isolation in older people across Omagh, Fermanagh and Strabane, enhancing their lives, and promoting friendship, is the aim of a brand new community project recently launched by a local volunteer group.

Titled ‘Beyond the Call’, the Omagh Volunteer Centre were awarded a grant of £455,851.76 by the National Lottery Community Fund to deliver the project for people aged 60-and-above who live in the aforementioned areas.

It will offer a range of tailored services including telephone, home and buddy befriending, information, signposting and connecting to local activities and services, events, community-based training as well as a variety of volunteering opportunities.

The initiative will also see Omagh Volunteer Centre and Strabane Community Project work in partnership, as the two groups work to build upon the success of their original project, ‘The B-Friend Hub’, which has also taken into account feedback from older people, volunteers and the wider community.

The project’s official launch took place on Thursday past at Mahon’s Hotel, Irvinestown, where Monica Coyle, chairperson of Omagh Volunteer Centre, thanked the National Lottery Community Fund for, once again, granting a further significant injection of funding for the continued delivery of services needed to enhance the lives of local older people.

Kate Beggs, Northern Ireland director of The National Lottery Community Fund, has congratulated Omagh Volunteer Centre staff and volunteers on the project.

“We are delighted to fund ‘Beyond The Call’ to help reduce loneliness and isolation and make a positive difference to many older people’s lives,” she said. “We look forward to hearing about the difference this project will make over the next three years.

Officially launching the new project, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council chairperson, Cllr Barry McElduff, praised Omagh Volunteer Centre on securing the further funding to support older people across the district, thanked all of the volunteers and wished continued success to everyone involved.

For more information about the services offered by Beyond the Call, and the volunteering opportunities it presents, please contact Geraldine Keys, project manager, at ‘managergk@omaghvolunteercentre.org’ or telephone ‘028 8224 0772’. This vital project could not be delivered without the support of the National Lottery players.