Matt Healey from Your Herefordshire was delighted to visit the Plough Inn Hereford to take part in a brand new initiative called Cuppa & a Chat
The event takes place on the first Monday of every month from 10am-12 Midday, everybody is welcome and we were treated to a refreshing beverage.
The group is run in connection with Heineken and we spoke to Ella Russell from the company who told us more.
“I recently started work at Heineken and we wanted to support people with loneliness and try and combat the problem, back in June it was Loneliness Awareness week and my colleague Laura Stephens got in contact with Steve Franklin who runs a community group called Ending Loneliness, between ourselves we created this new monthly group and its been very successful in bringing people together, but we would love to have more people come and join us. I want to thank Laura for her vision in helping this come together”
We asked Steve about his organisation. He told us “Me and my wife started the group to assist primarily older people who do not have the opportunity to talk or socialise with others, whether inside or outside of their home. For some people, loneliness can be combated through an occasional cup of tea and a chat, whereas for others they relish the opportunity to go to social groups or learn new skills, and that’s where we can help, we run a regular group every Friday over in Hinton, so we wanted to do something north of the river and when Laura got in touch with us it was a perfect fit”
Ella added “The group is open to absolute everybody who wants to come along and join us, its a great way of socialising and meeting new people and getting people doing things and making new friendships”
You can find out more about Ending Loneliness here -> Ending Loneliness
