Prepare to Achieve chooses Contact the Elderly as Charity Of The Year

Prepare to Achieve, a specialist End-Point Assessment Organisation working in the health and social care sector has announced that Contact the Elderly will be their nominated Charity Of The Year for 2019. The announcement is a testament to Prepare to Achieve and in turn, the Progress to Excellence Group’s values, which focus strongly around giving back to the communities in which they operate. 

Contact the Elderly’s concept is simple and yet effective. They hold monthly tea parties for people over the age of 75 who experience loneliness. The guests are paired with volunteer drivers who take them to and from tea parties hosted by volunteers. This free service adds a valuable social lifeline for the elderly, who often find social isolation one of the greatest challenges of ageing. By going along to these tea parties, they get to spend some often treasured time with friends old and new, and break down the barriers of social isolation.

However, like many smaller charities, the demand is far greater than the capacity, and that is where fundraising comes in. It costs £7,000 to set-up and new group and £895 to keep a group running for a year, so Prepare to Achieve wants to help raise enough funds to allow the charity to set-up a new group in an area where it’s needed most, whilst also supporting with that group’s funding for at least a year.

Talking of the partnership, Acting CEO Lee Evans said;

“At Prepare to Achieve, we believe business should always be about more than profit. We want to give something back and next year we’ll be doing that with our Charity of the Year, Contact the Elderly. I’ve been really moved by the work that Contact the Elderly do and I look forward to working with our staff, our clients and our wider business family over the year ahead to raise money for this great cause.”

Chief Executive of Contact the Elderly, Meryl Davies, said:

“It is wonderful that Prepare to Achieve has chosen Contact the Elderly as Charity of the Year for 2019. Loneliness and social isolation affect millions of people across the country. Nearly 2 million older people feel isolated and ignored and nearly half of older people’s main source of company is the television. Contact the Elderly’s groups give isolated people in their 80s and 90s the chance to get out and meet others on a regular basis.  Friendships and formed and lives are transformed. The support of Prepare to Achieve will help us reach even more older people in 2019.”

On average, each tea party has between 5 – 10 guests, plus their driver volunteers, and with the charity currently working with approximately 6,600 individuals, it is clear that they are having a significant impact on the lives of so many.