A PROJECT to support the elderly and vulnerable has received almost £10k worth of funding.

The Call and Create project is being run by The Point Eastleigh, in partnership with Age Concern Eastleigh.

The aim is to provide additional help and support for residents in the local community by reaching out to the Borough’s older and vulnerable residents over ten weeks.

Arts professionals engaged by The Point will speak to these residents, exploring their lives and interests, culminating in the creation of a poem, story, or song which will then be exhibited in The Point.

A significant cash boost of £9,800 has now been issued to the organisations from the Government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund.

Chairman of Age Concern Eastleigh Devan Kandiah said: “The grant will enable Age Concern to continue and maintain our telephone befriending service.

"We believe talking is often the best way to start feeling better and this programme will reduce anxiety and prepare our elderly to love later life."

The funding comes just weeks after it was announced that The Point had received an allocation of £193,000 from the Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund.

With this financial backing, Call and Create will aim to ease the heightened loneliness and isolation experienced by elderly and vulnerable residents due to COVID-19.

This will in turn feed into the key aim of owners of The Point, Eastleigh Borough Council to promote healthy communities.

The Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Councillor Tonia Craig, added: “Loneliness can have a serious impact on the wellbeing of older and more vulnerable people and, for many, the situation has been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Age Concern and The Point have done brilliantly to secure this grant and this really imaginative project should help alleviate feelings of anxiety among some of our isolated residents.”