A WEBSITE revamp and raft of new grant opportunities are being lined up to ensure a lifeline service for older folk in the dale carries on.
The Association of Teesdale Day Clubs, which provides weekly lunches in villages across the length and breadth of the dale, has enough funding to keep it running until the spring of 2020.
But the day clubs’ annual meeting heard how the pot would eventually need to be topped up to keep the charity afloat.
Chairman Dr Peter Wood said: “In 2017 the trustees began to address the question of sustainability once the Big Lottery Fund grant runs out.
“With reserves we can run until the third quarter of 2020 – the problem comes as we all know because getting funding is becoming more difficult.”
Most of the Day Clubs funding came from the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities Fund which has provided a total of £409,750 in the last five years.
A new-look website which is easier to maintain is in the pipeline to save on costs as well as a plea for sponsorship from dale firms due to arrive in shops this week.
Dr Wood added: “We won’t hold our breath but we’ve got to try all options because it’s important to keep the organisation running.”
Figures revealed how the Day Clubs had costs of £119,000 last year and an income of about £117,000.
The Big Lottery Fund provided £82,000 in 2017 with £11,694 gathered through Durham County Council and £1,000 given through the Durham Shopping Extravaganza.
Board members struck an upbeat tone when it came to prospects for securing more grants in future.
Dr Wood said: “We believe the county council are providing some funds for social care through Teesdale Action Partnership (TAP) – you can take it from me we will be applying.
“We have been in this position before, twice at least to my knowledge, and we’ve managed to sort it out.
“We are reasonably confident we will find these funds.”
Trustee Annie Dolphin, who is also on the board of the County Durham Community Foundation, added: “We are not prevented from going for the Big Lottery Fund again. As we’ve done a lot of work the Big Lottery is much more likely to fund us for a third time.
“We can attract matched funding from County Durham and there are quite a lot of funds for older people.
“We are sorting it out early and now is the right time to be looking at it.”
The clubs provide elderly people with freshly prepared meals and have been lauded for tackling rural social isolation.
Membership nudged up from 231 to 235 in 2017 with a 70 per cent attendance rate at the lunches.
Demographically, 96 per cent of members were aged 65 and older with almost a third of attendees aged 85 and older. Dr Wood was also impressed with the increase of men attending, heading up from 30 per cent to 32 per cent.
He said: “Men are notoriously difficult to get to come to these – until they come down and you can’t get rid of them.”
A total of 8,713 meals were served up in 2017 with all clubs receiving a five star food hygiene rating and 99 per cent of members agreeing the clubs were an important part of their week.
Dr Wood added: “We only had one member who was taken into long term care which I think it’s a tremendous achievement.”
Three dozen trips were also organised last year and Dr Wood stressed the association was “more than just lunches” .
He also paid tribute to the staff, the trustees and the 95 volunteers who keep the charity going.
“Without them we just could not run so a big thank you to them,” added Dr Wood.
