A summer of socials

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"Liverpool Cares is the embodiment of 'scouse' – love warmth, laughter and family" - Martin. 

In her next blog, Senior Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Rachael writes about Liverpool Cares' successful summer social events that have introduced, engaged and connected younger and older neighbours in spaces and places across the city in 2023.

The weather might have been a little disappointing over the past few months, but we've been feeling the sunshine in a different way this summer at Liverpool Cares. We run our free social clubs all year around, but this year we've also run two extra special social events, with the aim of bringing people together by exploring new venues in exciting ways that engage our network of younger and older neighbours with one another on a deeper level. 

We were delighted to collaborate with a new community partner and venue space - the wonderful Liverpool Lighthouse – for our first Big Summer Social in July. Nestled in the heart of Anfield, the spectacular 420-seater auditorium was the perfect indoor space to hold an afternoon of social club taster sessions. Throughout the afternoon neighbours received information about our programmes and other local support options, drank lots of cups of tea, ate some delicious, locally baked cakes and – most importantly – created a friendly environment for chats, laughter and connection to be shared.

Older neighbour Viv, who hadn't been inside the Lighthouse in many years commented,

"Thank you for a wonderful day, The Lighthouse is such a great venue and lovely to see the old cinema inside - I really enjoyed it."

While younger neighbour Anthony told us, 

"I had a great time this afternoon, it brought a lot of sunshine to a rainy day."

At our Big Summer Social, we also had the pleasure of utilising our amazing younger neighbours – who each helped set up and run the event alongside the Liverpool Cares team. From assisting with technology duties, setting up and running social taster sessions, and welcoming neighbours into and around the building, younger neighbours provided essential support to the team throughout the day and we can't thank them enough for volunteering a few hours to support both us and their fellow neighbours.  

And it's at the Big Summer Social where we also met our younger neighbour Michael for the first time! Michael had seen the event advertised on social media and decided to come along to find out more. Michael shared with us,

"I am so happy to join Liverpool Cares. I really enjoyed attending the event, the staff were helpful and involved me in the activities and introduce me to so many people."

Shortly after the event, Michael was inducted into our network and is now signed up for the Love Your Neighbour programme - he'll soon be matched up with an older neighbour to hang out and spend time in the city together. 

Our second Summer Social took place at one of many vibey hang-outs across the Baltic Triangle, Sub Rosa. On a very grey Wednesday evening, despite the torrential downpours, 23 warm-hearted souls braved the conditions and joined one another to connect and eat delicious homemade pizza over a few drinks.

It's really important that we use spaces like this to listen to feedback and hear neighbour experiences, and so during the evening, we invited some of the neighbours to share their thoughts about joining Liverpool Cares. We were thrilled to hear so many positive things, just take a look below!

"It's really great to chat with lots of different people with different perspectives"

"I love the younger neighbour socials, hearing conversations where people are opening up and benefitting from the connections they are making" 

"Liverpool Cares has helped me feel at home in a new city and improved my well-being ten-fold. What an amazing thing to be a part of!"

We also asked neighbours to share with us what they felt was truly Liverpool about Liverpool Cares, and we love this fantastic quote from Martin,

"Liverpool Cares is the embodiment of 'Scouse' - love warmth, laughter and family"

We're incredibly grateful to both The Liverpool Lighthouse and Sub Rosa for the space, staffing and support for the smooth running of our summer social events and we can't wait to be back again soon!

We're also humbled to hear about the impact the network has made on individuals' lives, be it at our free social clubs, through their new friendships on our Love Your Neighbour programme, or through our other community events or younger neighbour socials. 

It's clear that by bringing like-minded people together in new ways, new positive experiences are being made - helping bridge divides and create community – which is at the heart of everything we do at Liverpool Cares.