The last three Ready Friends Befriending Forums clearly demonstrated how Reading’s voluntary and community groups are providing safe and inclusive spaces for people facing loneliness in different communities. The wide range of groups that shared how they support local people included:
- Refugee Support Group
- Wycliffe Coffee and Craft
- Reading Golders
- Together for Mental Wellbeing
- Younger People With Dementia
- Thames Valley Gay Chorus
- Reading Community Learning Centre
- Reading Mencap
- Indian Community Association
Particiant feedback on these events was the most positive yet, and attracted record attendances. The speakers showed how small, practical steps can make all the difference to people from specific communities, and how there is always room for improvement, particularly around ‘intersectionality’, meaning how various social and political identities—such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability—overlap and intersect to create unique combinations of discrimination or privilege.
The presenters got us off our seats to dance and sing, and to draw each other’s portraits (by putting our sketchbooks on our heads, so we couldn’t see what we were drawing!)
In the workshops, everyone shared their approaches to inclusion, as well as the challenges their groups faced in trying to ensure that their doors were truly ‘open to all’. Summaries of the workshops can be found in these reports:
24.6.25 Befriending Forum report
10.9.25 Befriending Forum report
28.1.26 Befriending Forum report
At the next Befriending Forum, we will focus on Men’s Loneliness and Social Isolation
Speakers will include
- Together for Mental Wellbeing, Men’s MH service
- Andy’s Man Club
- Reading Men’s Sheds
- Man V Fat
- Men Walking and Talking