The volunteers tackling loneliness this Christmas

Over the festive season this year, when many group activities and clubs shut down for a short break, Olivia will spend a few hours of her week on the phone - as she usually does.

She will talk to the same two people she does every week, offering a listening ear to those facing increased isolation at Christmas.

Olivia is a final year psychology student at the University of Winchester, and she also spends her time volunteering for Hammersley Homes, which supports adults with mental health challenges and psychotic illnesses in Hampshire.

As a remote support worker, she has been making phone calls to the same two people, known as members, since she started in May 2022.

Sometimes the calls are light and chatty, and at other times they dig in deeper. These are vulnerable people facing things like loneliness and memory loss.

At Christmas time, there are even more challenges.

It is a time when the pressure to be around loved ones is intensified, when television adverts are packed with images of happy families.

For those without that kind of bond, Olivia explains, it can make them feel more isolated.

Financial concerns mount up at this time of year too, and the festive season breaks normal routines, to which people might cling. Keeping up the calls over Christmas is vital.

"Sometimes their thoughts almost magnify when they're on their own," Olivia says.

Keeping up those phone calls helps regulate feelings around the season, and make people feel listened to. And if they message Olivia, she will answer.

"Loneliness is such a big thing we're trying to decrease," she says. "Just because you have this, doesn't mean you have to fight it alone."

Olivia knows this all too well.

"One of the reasons I do it is because I've seen the impact of mental health," she says.

"The person I had didn't get the help he needed. I don't think anyone should have to suffer with it in silence."

It is not just the members who are benefitting from the help of Hammersley Homes. Olivia enjoys her weekly phone calls with people that she has gradually built a rapport with.

Roles like this one take time and training, so while Christmas might be an important time, people like Olivia are needed all year round, even just for a couple of hours a week.

There are other ways to get involved too, like sending Christmas cards that the charity can distribute to members or by donating money.

"I think anyone can volunteer," Olivia says. "It's so important you have that empathy and respect. A little visit for you can make a massive impact on someone else's life."

In another part of Hampshire, Lifehouse in Southsea offers hot food to people who are inadequately housed.

It is part of Portsmouth's food circuit network, and every Wednesday you can find the "Bash Street Kids" - a handful of volunteer friends who have relied on the service themselves - joking over a cup of tea and a fry up.

They know the names of all the people coming into Lifehouse.

About 90 people pass through the doors for every Wednesday breakfast and Thursday dinner drop-in service.

Volunteers offer visitors a cup of tea, before sitting them down for bacon, eggs, sausage and hash browns.

In the back, more volunteers put together food parcels, checking with visitors what needs they have and what kind of kitchen they have to work with.

Racks of clothes are available for people to pick out things they need, and bookshelves offer up a library of reading material.

When it comes to the festive season, a full Christmas meal is thrown during December, and on Christmas Day volunteers offer out a Christmas breakfast, alongside important information on where else to find support.

Terry, one of the Bash Street Kids, is among those who spent last Christmas offering out meals.

He describes the experience as "hectic, but fun".

For him, volunteering at Christmas last year was a kindness to both himself and others who don't have family around.

"If you don't have all those people around, you're left with yourself," he says.

By volunteering on Christmas Day, Terry describes how he made his own day busy as well as making other peoples' days busy.

"There's a family spirit that people have, that we don't have. But now we do."

Terry's been volunteering here for around two years and was coming in for meals before that. This group of volunteers have received help from the network of services in Portsmouth, and now they're giving back.

"You use it and you move on. And if things happen, you come back. It's like a staging ground," Terry says.

Some of the volunteers have experienced homelessness themselves, and others give up their time for other reasons. One thing Terry stresses is the sense of community he feels.

Ellie is one of Lifehouse's newest volunteering recruits - although her hard-working attitude makes it seem as though she has been at hand for much longer.

She started volunteering at Lifehouse through a period of unemployment and - unless those circumstances change soon - she plans to spend some of December helping Lifehouse through the festive season.

"I'm in the kitchen some days, or out the front, or washing up," she says.

"I've always wanted to help people."

Also joining the group over breakfast at Lifehouse is Phil.

He volunteers just down the road at Helping Hands, which he describes as "the coalface of it all," a place for people who really need help.

On Christmas Day, the volunteers cook up a meal.

Phil has been homeless himself, sleeping on the streets during the biting cold of the Beast from the East, and has been through the prison system.

He uses his experiences to help others, offering true empathy for people in similar situations to the ones he's faced in the past.

"I'm trying to do the right thing now," he says.

"People are more inclined to talk to me. There's no judgement. They'll tell me their life story, I'll listen."

Phil has sage advice for anyone keen to volunteer.

"Don't judge, have an open mind. It could happen to you - don't ever take anything for granted."

Terry suggests that people should go and visit projects, to see if they're the kind of place they'd like to spare some time - over Christmas or all year round.

Olivia from Hammersley Homes has similar advice, suggesting people have a look into the organisations they are interested in, and think about what time they can spare on a regular basis.

Both volunteers and donations are vital to keep charities that support vulnerable people running all year round, but it is clear Christmas comes with its own unique challenges.

Terry knows first hand what those challenges are, and why services like Lifehouse need a strong community in the festive season:

"[It's important] especially at Christmas time, getting everybody together in a safe environment."

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