Happy New year from Marmalade Trust!
As we go into a new year, we thought we would share a few memories
and thanks from 2021...
We got organised! We spent a lot of the beginning of the year putting in place some new better systems and processes, to enable us to look after our members and volunteers in an easy way. We were very grateful to several funders for enabling us to do this, including the City Fund and The Grateful Society.
Loneliness Awareness Week. We used the power of social media to continue to run our national campaign to reduce stigma and raise awareness of loneliness. We reached 124 million impressions and over 450,000 people engaged with the campaign, and more than 900 ‘lonely bouquets’ were left by florists across the country for people to pick up and give to others.
Month of community. We took part in the month of community with other incredible partners, such as The Eden Project and The Jo Cox Foundation, sharing ways we can help build happier communities.
We recruited. With the wonderful support of our charity partners, Barratt David Wilson Homes and Global’s Make Some Noise, we were able to increase our small team and we welcomed Lucy Norris and Helen-Ker Bridges.
We held garden parties. To help welcome some of our members who had been isolating for many months back into the community, we held two garden parties, one in June and one in September. A huge thank you Jo, Barratt David Wilson Homes and of course the band who came and played some lovely tunes and got us all up for a dance in the garden!
We helped people understand how they can support others experiencing loneliness, by giving talks to many organisations including the Police, Ministry of Justice, universities, and cancer charities. We also spoke on the radio, including heart FM, LBC and the BBC and were featured in articles, including My Weekly and The Telegraph.
And of course… we helped people feel less alone on Christmas Day. After many months of planning events, we unfortunately had to make the last minute decision to move to doorstep visits due to the rising omicron cases.
That didn’t stop us though! We created and delivered 170 Connection Advent Calendars with the help of the UWE paramedic students.
On Christmas Day we completed 181 doorstep chats and Christmas hamper deliveries. A huge thank you to our wonderful volunteers who made this possible...
<- (and this little one too)!
Amazing fundraisers! So many wonderful people raised money for us this year – thank you so much for every penny that was raised. We don’t have space to name you all, but one extra special thank you goes to Amanda who walked 10 miles every day for the whole year, to raise money!!! Incredible effort!
2022 plans...
We have grand plans for 2022, including supporting 160 members experiencing loneliness to reconnect with the community and make new friends with our companion scheme. We're still in need of some lovely volunteers for this project - to learn more and become a wonderful Marmalade Companion volunteer this January...
From all of us, we would like to wish you a very happy and healthy new year!
Thank you for all your support – we could not do what we do without you!
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