Helping Bring CHEER to the Retired Community of Elmbridge

We are delighted to offer a small grant to help local charity, CHEER, upgrade their outdated IT system, enabling staff to lay the foundations for expanding their befriending service.

CHEER has been supporting retired people in Elmbridge for over 65 years with free advice, guidance and support.  Their popular befriending service normally includes visits to people’s homes and social events but, due to Covid-19 restrictions, this hasn’t been possible.  Instead, CHEER have been reaching out to their clients by telephone and providing a lifeline to older people struggling with social isolation.

Older people are among the hardest hit during the current pandemic. The effects of lockdown and lack of social interaction is increasing loneliness and recent research has highlighted the impact the crisis is having on older people’s mental health.

Julian Mobbs, newly appointed Chairman of Trustees for CHEER, said: “We are delighted that Walton Charity is supporting our work in this way.   CHEER has had to operate very differently during the COVID pandemic with our staff team working from home.  This, and the increased need for our services, has put extra pressure on our IT infrastructure.  The grant will enable us to update our systems so that the team can provide CHEER’s much needed services more effectively.”