Teesdale Day Clubs

January 2022

Our Strategic Plan for 2022 - 2023 has been approved. Download it here (pdf 170Kb) to see what it contains.


June 2020

Day Clubs COVID19 funding success

Teesdale Day Clubs have been supporting their membership of over 200 older people across Teesdale since lockdown started in March, adapting their service to provide a weekly phone calls to each of their members, and delivering vital shopping or medication when needed.

The charity has been working hard to secure funding to continue to support their COVID19 related activity and also to extend what they are able to offer whilst the usual lunchtime clubs are closed and their members have to stay at home.

Andrea Hobbs, strategic manager at the Day Clubs, said "Early funding from County Durham Community Foundation enabled us to meet immediate additional telephone and travel costs to provide the phone calls and other support to all our members, and stay in contact with our volunteers, many of whom are also over 70 so have had to stay at home. The calls have become a very important and vital lifeline for many of our members, especially those that live alone. Many have commented that this period of lockdown has been worse than their memories of the war, as they have felt so isolated and alone." Around 70% of the Day Club members live alone, with a high percentage being over 80, and many have family who live away from the area or are themselves self-shielding.

Recent funding application success has seen the Day Clubs awarded grants from both The National Lottery Community Fund and also the Durham County Council Area Budget via the Teesdale Area Partnership, specifically for COVID19 support. Andrea added "We are thrilled and extremely grateful for the way our funders have supported us, and the quick turn-around of these grants means that we are able to maintain the different service we are now providing. Our team has been fantastic, and we will now be able to continue to call our 200 plus members weekly and extend our new 'doorstep and drop' outreach service that can deliver vital shopping, and medication. Sometimes the team can spend over an hour talking to a member on the phone when they are feeling particularly down. With this additional funding from both the National Lottery and Durham County Council, we are able to extend our support even more and include some face to face contacts just to have a chat and provide some reassurance, within social distancing guidelines of course."

The Day Clubs will also be launching a new newsletter that will circulate around all their members, keeping people in touch with each other more closely over the next few months, as it seems unlikely that the usual lunchtime club meetings will get back to normal before the end of the summer.


 

August 2019

25th anniversary celebrations

Three celebration lunches were held last week to bring our day club members and volunteers together for a special meal, a glass of bubbly and to share cake and congratulations! It's amazing that we have reached this incredible milestone - and we're looking forward to the next 25 years!!

Thanks to all of our generous sponsors and supporters who made these events possible. All the staff worked their socks off to ensure that everyone had a great time - and regular club volunteers got to sit down and enjoy a meal and a chat!

25th anniversary cake Cutting the cake


Teesdale Mercury Community Pride Awards - Winners!

We are pleased to report that the Association of Teesdale Day Clubs are proud winners of the Volunteers of the Year Award. Here we are being presented with the certificate;

Award Ceremony


 

Teesdale Mercury Community Pride Awards

We are pleased and grateful to have been shortlisted for a Community Pride Award in the category of Volunteer of the Year - and we need your votes to help us win this! Please buy the Teesdale Mercury and look out for the voting instructions! Thanks from the team


The Kyle Travel team at the Barnard Castle branch have nominated us to be their Charity of the Year. We are delighted with this news and send them a huge Thank You!

Kyle Travel Services Logo

Our team will be working with their team over the next 12 months to make best use of their support in raising funds in our local community.

Look out for their activities in the town throughout the year and support them in their efforts - they are a small team supporting us in a big way!


Andrea HobbsApril 2019

We are delighted to announce our appointment of a new Strategic Manager to our office team. Andrea Hobbs joined us on the 29th April and will be supporting us with funding and strategic planning. Andrea joins us with over 20 years of experience in the voluntary sector and we are pleased to welcome her to our team. For further details please click here.