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Guardian Public Services Award 2008 - Winner!

27 November 2008

Connect's Reaching Out project has been awarded the Guardian Public Services Award 2008 - Care of older people category

The ‘Reaching Out Project’ trains teams of volunteers to visit people with aphasia (communication disability, usually after stroke) in their own homes to have conversations.  Unique to this project, the volunteers are trained by ‘experts’ - people with aphasia themselves, so participants have meaningful conversations with volunteers who really understand aphasia.

The project aims to support people with aphasia who are often elderly, isolated, alone and unable to access traditional therapy or services.  As a result, people feel more confident, have something to look forward to, have a way of engaging with people and have increased dignity and self-esteem.

The project has eleven partners around the country (NHS, voluntary agencies and universities) who are running the scheme. Connect has developed a Conversation Partner Toolk which enables services to set up their own scheme.

Find out more about Reaching Out and the Conversation Partner Toolkit

Sally McVicker, Project Lead (right) and Carole Pound, Director of Innovation (3rd from left) with communication trainers with aphasia (left to right) Jane Stokes, Terry Smith, Emmanuel Godis and Arthur Jaffee.

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