The Widows Empowerment Trust befriending service continues to break barriers. One of the beneficiaries, Christine, has been isolated for seven years since becoming a widow. She stopped socialising and became very alone. Since being in touch with Widows Empowerment Trust, she loves the fact that she can talk to someone who can truly understand her pain, her grieving, and her isolation. Christine wants to integrate back into society but needs gentle guidance and help in doing so. They have provided her with art and craft activities that she can do with her befriender volunteer and it engages her mind, boosts her confidence and creates a new hobby as well as socialising which will helps to improve her overall wellbeing.
“I have never engaged in activities since my loss seven years ago. The Widows Empowerment Trust has changed my world with creativity and culture, I am now smiling. I have made friends who understand me better.” Christine is now slowly starting to rebuild her confidence which will help her to create meaningful friendships with the group and be in a supportive environment after being alone for seven years.
The Widows Empowerment Trust also broke barriers by still providing work experience for students of Manchester Metropolitan University virtually. They had made a commitment to the young people to try to help them gain the full university experience including their work placement which provided them with employability skills, gave them the insight into how an organisation operates, and they increased their communication skills also. COVID-19 has impacted the educational needs of the youth and they wanted to continue to support those that they could as an organisation. In total, Widows Empowerment Trust supported 60 students from the Psychology and Health and Social Care departments to help to earn their credits towards their degree. By offering students work placements, they broke through a barrier by becoming an intergenerational organisation.
