How community support networks reach people who need them

Starting from the neighbourhood

The most effective support we have seen is local. A volunteer who already knows a street will reach somebody a national programme never finds, so our network is built out of neighbourhood groups rather than around them.

Partners keep their own identity and their own way of working. What we add is scheduling, supplies and a route back into clinical care when it is needed.

Making the hand-off work

A referral is only useful if somebody picks it up. Every hand-off between a volunteer and our care team is tracked to a named person, and nothing closes until it has an outcome.

Growing carefully

We add partners at the pace we can support them, because a network that outgrows its training is a network that quietly stops being reliable.