Pupils meet Second World War pen pals at tea party

A project to tackle the loneliness of older people across Swindon ended with a tea party at the Wyvern Theatre on Monday 16 July.

The letter writing project which was set up in May by the Council's Community Health and Wellbeing Team, saw the forging of friendships between local primary school children and older, isolated individuals.

In the letters, the pen pals shared stories about the Second World War and what life was like many years ago, while the children recounted experiences of their SATs exams and their favourite hobbies.

The project part of the Swindon Circles initiative, afforded Year 6 pupils from Goddard Park Community Primary School the opportunity to take part and use their literary skills.  As well as providing friendship and companionship to an increased number of older people in the town.

Refreshments and activities were provided by Zurich Insurance Group who supported the tea party and funded taxis to transport some of the older people.

Cllr Brian Ford, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults, said: “You can really feel the warmth and care coming through when you read these letters, which shows what a meaningful and successful project this has been.

“It’s lovely to see the bonds which have grown between these different generations and I’d like to thank the Wyvern Theatre and Zurich for helping us to host this tea party, giving those involved the chance to meet their pen pals face to face.”

Marie Barrett, Community Researcher at Swindon Borough Council, said: “This project is something that I’d seen work in another part of the country and decided to replicate it.
As a team, we’ve found that over the Christmas period, there’s lots of activities for isolated people to attend and generally people want to reach out and help others. However, the rest of the year these people can feel more isolated.

We wanted to find a way to create meaningful connections for people throughout the year to help their health and wellbeing and combat feelings of loneliness, and I think this project has been successful in doing just that.”

If you’d like more information about how you could get involved with Swindon Circles, please contact the Live Well Hub on 01793 465513.