Projects
The Cameron Project
Location
Forres
Recipient
Forres Area Community Trust
Funding Awarded
£19,250.00
Forres Area Community Trust (FACT) were awarded funding for the Cameron Project aimed at reducing social isolation following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The funding enabled FACT to employ a befriending and activities co-ordinator for 16 hours a week for 21 weeks. The befriending and activities co-ordinator’s role was to:
reduce the growing number of local people who were seeking social connection.
provide outreach sessions to reach the rural areas around Forres.
provide public events to encourage engagement and to reach new people in the area.
deliver a range of activity sessions to engage people who were feeling isolated and lonely.
increase the reach of FACT’s directory of services.
These activities helped FACT and vulnerable members of the community to recover and become more resilient following the Covid pandemic, thereby ensuring a just renewal.
“I’m a carer for my mother, stepfather and my aunt. Two of them are in their Eighties, one of them in their Nineties. So to come along today gives me a clear space in my head. I can just relax and forget all my worries for the time that I’m here. And that makes a big difference when I’m under pressure 24 hours a day. This is my first foray into a day class. I only moved to Forres in August. I find that the courses that FACT provide are very community minded. It’s about connection and head space.”
Christine, Forres resident
Moray Local Action Group is supporting the Cameron Project here at Forres Town Hall, where Forres Area Community Trust organise various activities. Painting, yoga, exercise, art workshops. The whole idea is to encourage people to socialise more, meet other people. Sometimes the person next to you is as important as the activity itself.
We had over a thousand people through our doors between September and December last year. And five hundred between January and February this year.
Forres has a large elderly population. They can be more vulnerable. Sometimes they have health issues. Or they are simply lonely and have no relatives nearby. These activities help with befriending. They bring people together so they have some company and make new friends.
Ilona Wood, Events and Activities Development Worker, Forres Area Community Trust
