Totnes Caring has been awarded National Lottery funding to support the charity’s work to bring isolated and lonely older people together.

The funding of £124,225 over three years will help Totnes Caring continue to deliver group activities that connect people to their community, enhance their wellbeing and reduce social isolation.

Totnes Caring has been working in the heart of the community since 1987, supporting vulnerable mainly older people to live as independently as possible, and all the charity’s activities and services have been developed to help people maintain good health and wellbeing.

The funding will specifically support the continuation of a variety of group activities, including a lunch club, art group, and a monthly pop up café, which is open to everyone in the community.

It will also support a volunteer transport service to and from activities, accompanying people to initial sessions and if required, providing additional support at the activity.

Victoria Wolf, Community Engagement Team Leader, said: “Engagement in social and creative activities has been proven to boost wellbeing in so many ways, and our activities will provide opportunities for people to come together, to learn, socialize and create.

“We’re delighted that the National Lottery Community Fund is supporting our work and thanks to this funding we will be able to continue to deliver activities that create a positive impact in the lives of those experiencing isolation, loneliness or health problems in our community.”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.