Connections for Connectors – for anyone working in a social prescribing, care navigating, or community connecting type role.

Following our planning sessions last year, VAST is pleased to launch this supportive sharing session for anyone working in a social prescribing, care navigating, or community connecting type role in Stoke-on-Trent.

If your work depends on connecting with the wider VCSE sector in order to support better health and wellbeing outcomes for people in our city, then we hope this group may well be for you. In response to the feedback offered during the planning sessions, each session will feature at least three speakers showcasing VCSE-led services that address the themes highlighted by our planning sessions, some time for informal networking, and plenty of time for Q&A.

At our 5 March session, we are looking forward to hearing from:

• Liz Daley and Alex Baines from MHA and Father Hudson’s Care, talking about their befriending services and social groups for older people, which form part of their Better Together project
• Louise Zandian and Aimee Calcott from Lifeworks, talking about their upcoming There4U project, offering befriending, activities and support for people with autistic spectrum conditions
• Paul Webster from Approach Dementia Support, taking about services for people with dementia available in the city
• Maurice Greenham from North Staffs Older LGBT Group, a self-help group for older LGBT+ people offering mutual peer support through regular meetings and programmes of social, cultural and creative activities.

We’ve asked each of our speakers to talk about their service or project:

• What does your service do, and who is it for?
• Personal stories: examples of how local people have benefited from this work
• How can people access your service or project / how are referrals made?
• What limitations are there?
• Anything you’d like to know about the challenges that connectors face, and the opportunities that they see for the city

We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information, please email [email protected]