Re-engage Charity Partnership

We’re excited to announce our new charity partnership with Re-engage, a charity passionate about reducing loneliness and isolation in older people by bringing generations together in friendship and shared experiences.

What Re-engage do

Re-engage provides free social and activity groups, and one-to-one services for people who are 75 and over. Helping them to expand their social circles and bringing them companionship, enjoyment and a chance to connect with others.

Last year, they helped over 6,500 lonely and isolated older people connect with others through their services, which are proven to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. Their services include:

- Call companions – a regular phone call every week or two from a friendly volunteer
- Rainbow call companions – an award-wining call befriending service for older LGBT people
- Tea parties – a monthly social gathering of conversation and laughter over tea and cake at a volunteer’s home with other older people
- Activity groups – combine gentle exercise or other physical activity with a chance to socialise with others.

Re-engage Volunteers

Re-engage services are delivered by a community of volunteers who operate across the country. They occupy a range of roles, with various time commitments, from hosting a tea party a couple of times a year, to making weekly or fortnightly phone calls to an older person living alone. Volunteers are trained, and given supporting resources, and have ready access to Re-engage’s service delivery team: working together to create better communities and to enrich the lives of their members.

Reducing Loneliness

Each year, Re-engage conducts a survey to assess how well their services are tackling loneliness. Between April 2022 and March 2023 their findings showed a significant reduction in feelings of loneliness among the older people that access their services. And that the number of older people who ‘often or always’ feel lonely, was 67% lower when they joined Re-engage. Some other notable findings from their most recent analysis:

- 94% of older people rate Re-engage services as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’
- 86% of older people agree joining Re-engage ha had a positive impact on their lives
- 77% of older people have made friends as a result of joining Re-engage

How we are working with Re-engage

As the UK’s only employee owned travel group, we view our customers as an extension of our own Alfa family, and just like with actual family members, we wanted to work with a charity that we feel would benefit our customers.

All of our customers are extremely important to us and we want to be there for them as best we can. To help support the work that Re-engage do for older people we will be dedicating a day every week at each of our 24 Leisureplex Hotels to fundraising for this fantastic charity that is very close to our hearts.

Once a week our employee owners will wear orange Re-engage t-shirts instead of their normal uniforms and there will be a table set up in reception for guests to find out more about the charity. Our Re-engage days will be filled with lots of fun activities for guests with a host of different prizes to be won. There will be a small entrance fee which will be donated to the charity to help with the work that they do. Each month we will raffle off £250 worth of holiday vouchers so it is definitely worth getting involved if you love your Alfa holidays!

We will also be selling books by Glenda Young, with £1.50 per purchase going to the Re-engage Charity.

Connect with Re-engage

Website: www.reengage.org.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/reengageuk

Support Re-engage

Support our chosen charity Re-engage directly by donating through the JustGiving fundraising page. Every little bit will help the charity provide vital, regular social contact to combat loneliness amongst older people.