Tackling loneliness through transport

Received from Devon Communities Together 23rd August 2022

Connecting You

The Connecting You project, led by Devon County Council, is series of initiatives that aim to tackle loneliness with transport for the over 55s and young adults aged 16-24. It has been made possible thanks to a successful funding bid by the council for £494,000 from the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this year. The DfT has allocated nearly £5 million to 12 organisations across England to support projects targeted at groups who are most at risk of loneliness including people living in rural areas, the elderly or those with a physical and mental health condition. The projects will be evaluated to help inform future transport policies and interventions which can help to reduce loneliness.

Devon County Council will be working with a series of partners to deliver a series of other innovative transport schemes tackling loneliness. It has also opened a grant fund for organisations to apply for funding to run transport-related projects that tackle loneliness. More details on the grant fund and details of how to apply can be found here: https://www.traveldevon.info/accessibility/connecting-you

Existing partners on the Connecting You project include Devon Communities Together, Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, One Northern Devon and WestBank Community Health and Care. Initiatives to support people to travel include:

• Recruiting travel trainers who will provide support to help passengers gain confidence in using public transport, understanding timetables, and buying tickets or using travel passes, in order to encourage increased independent travel.
• Introducing a travel buddy system and developing on board support from staff/volunteers. This builds on the successful trial of the ‘Chatty Bus’ services in the Exeter to Exmouth area to encourage sociable travel and help people to switch to public transport from the car for some journeys.
• Working with public and community transport operators on driver training initiatives to help improve the journey for passengers.
• Targeting young people with a community rail project in Okehampton and a Try the Train initiative on the Waterloo line between Exeter and Axminster in East Devon.

The project runs until May 2023. For more information visit https://www.traveldevon.info/accessibility/connecting-you