Group events like our Widows' Support Circle work well for widows who can get there. They work far less well for the ones who most need support but can't easily leave home, whether from age, illness, or simply the demands of caring for young children alone, which is exactly why we run a separate home-visit programme alongside our public gatherings.
Volunteers visit widows identified through our household register, checking on general wellbeing, helping connect them to services when needed, and providing company for women who may go long stretches without a visitor otherwise.
It's slower, less visible work than a group event, one volunteer, one household, one visit at a time, but it reaches exactly the widows an event-based model alone would miss. We're currently recruiting more volunteers willing to commit to a regular visiting round.