Hello, I wanted to introduce myself, Chantal Young, as Freshford’s Village Agent. Village Agents help connect people in rural areas to advice and support services to promote living independently at home. We support residents with a range of issues, including residents who are struggling with loneliness and want more social contact, or who have financial worries and are not sure where to go for help, people needing care to stay well and safe at home, people returning home from hospital needing short, or longer, term support, or people who need practical help in the home and don’t know who to trust. It varies enormously! We’re good at finding solutions amongst the network of public, private and charitable organisations we work alongside.
Our support is there for any adult who is struggling personally, emotionally, medically or financially and who needs help to find solutions but doesn’t know where to start looking or how to access organisations who could help. I provide a confidential and free “triage service” listening to the resident and then signposting and introducing them to the organisations who could help or to the information they need.
I would be happy to meet with anyone or answer any questions you might have. I work flexibly, 10 hours a week, and I live locally. You can contact me at WERN: 01275 333700 or via email info@wern.org.uk
I work for the West of England Rural Network (WERN). WERN is a charity working in partnership with B&NES Council with a focus of connecting people in rural areas to advice and support services. The service has been operating in the west of the B&NES region for 10 years and we’re now offering the service in this area. We support the health and wellbeing of rural communities who can often feel cut off from a range of public services which residents living in urban areas access more easily.