ABC Connect Well, Live Well Network has over 90 member organisations. The Network meets throughout the year, both virtually and face to face, providing opportunities for members to share information, resources and learning that will help us to meet loneliness together and to promote opportunities for connectedness.
Who we are
Our Mission
The ABC Connect Well Live Well Network promotes connectedness to improve health and wellbeing across the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon council area. We work to address the root causes of loneliness through the promotion of meaningful social, emotional and community connections, empowering individuals and communities to thrive and to meet loneliness together.
Our objectives for 2025-2027
RAISE AWARENESS AND EXTEND TRAINING
- Delivery of Loneliness Awareness Training
- Delivery of Community Connector workshops
- Delivery of training that increases resilience and self-compassion
SCALING UP AND ENHANCING INITIATIVES
- Promote the chatty benches initiative and increase the number of benches in the area
- Increase and promote the number of chatty walks in the area.
PROMOTE THE CONNECT WELL LIVE WELL NETWORK
- Increase the Network membership
- Have an active communications strategy
STRENGTHENING THE NETWORK
- Identify funding to maintain and develop initiatives that promote connectedness
- Have a steering group whose membership is representative of all the local population
MEASURE IMPACT
- Build a community of learning and collaboration by sharing projects and learning
- Use an outcomes base accountability approach to demonstrate impact
Loneliness Awareness Week campaign video
Celebrating Connections
Since 2021, the ABC Loneliness Network has been building a more connected, compassionate community – one small act at a time. This video showcases the impact of local micro-projects like Chatty Walks, Chatty Benches and the Kindness Postbox, which have helped reduce loneliness and promote wellbeing across the ABC area.
Our Projects
Featured Project
Every few months we aim to showcase a project that has demonstrated the power of connections. We will share these projects to demonstrate what has worked well, in the hope that we will learn from each other and create a community for learning together.
We have teamed up with the Verve Healthy Living Network to deliver Chatty Walks across the Borough. Chatty Walks help us stay active and connected, boosting both physical and mental well-being.
To find out more about local chatty walks, visit Be Active Programmes – Verve Healthy Living Network
If you want to start a chatty walk in your area, we can support you with training and getting your walk started. Please contact us
Seven brightly painted ‘Chatty Benches’ have been installed in a number of our parks across the borough to help bring people together, thanks to a partnership between Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and the ABC Loneliness Network.
The aim of the Chatty Benches are to help reduce loneliness and isolation by providing an opportunity for people to sit down have a chat and stay connected.
Painted bright yellow the Chatty Benches also have a QR Code that takes users to online mental health support resources, offering a range of useful information on looking after our mental and emotional wellbeing.
The Chatty Benches are located in the following Parks:
- Dromore Park
- Edenvilla Park
- Loughgall Country Park
- Lurgan Park
- Solitude Park
- Tannaghmore Gardens
- The Palace Demesne, Armagh
The Kindness Post Box brings little bursts of happiness to those most at risk of loneliness or isolation within our communities. Since 2021 we have been partnering with local schools, businesses, youth and community groups to gather letters, poems and drawings from children and young people across the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon area, bringing little packages of joy to older residents who are isolated or those living in residential care and nursing homes.
Training
Over the last few years we’ve come to understand what loneliness can feel like more than ever before and whilst we’re seeing an increase in people talking about it, we feel the stigma remains and there are a lot of challenges we still face.
This awareness training is for anyone who is providing services to people in the community, but can also be used with your friends and family and the people you work with. You will learn what is meant by Loneliness and Social Isolation, what the life events or triggers are that often cause loneliness and understand the impact on our health and wellbeing. We will also cover how to address the stigma around loneliness and discuss how to have positive, meaningful and empathetic conversations using our Talking Tips guide.
Coming soon!
A connector can be anyone in your community! They will play an essential role in passing knowledge and understanding within communities, in the simplest of day-to-day interactions. Information may be available and for some can be easy to access and understand, but for others it may be too diffuse, too overwhelming, difficult to access or seemly hidden. So now, more than ever, we need to take a lead from what happens naturally in communities and build on it.
Train anyone, anywhere to be a Connector. This short, flexible training is designed to empower the next wave of Connectors in our communities. The core purpose of Connectors in the community is to increase access to and knowledge about the huge amount of support and resources there are in their area. Imagine the impact if an entire community knew about all the support and opportunities, for themselves and others alike?
More information coming soon
More information coming soon
Contact Us
Follow ABC Connect Well Live Well on Facebook.
Find out about Age Friendly ABC.