Sacriston, County Durham, is a village where many people face daily pressures that are easy to overlook from the outside. Health challenges, financial strain and limited transport all play a part. For some residents, especially older people, those pressures add up to long stretches of time alone.
Isolation here is part of daily life for many.
The Fulforth Centre: more than a building
At the centre of the village stands the Fulforth Centre, run by Sacriston Community Association.
From the outside, it looks like any other community building. Inside, it works more like a meeting point for everyday life.
There is a community garden. A sports space. Activities running across the week. But the real work happens in between conversations over lunch prepared by volunteers and people turning up for each other, again and again.
Backed by Point North through Know Your Neighbourhood
Through Point North and the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, the Fulforth Centre has been able to grow its volunteering offer and reach more people experiencing isolation.
The project runs six days a week and supports more than 200 people aged 50 to 90.
Volunteers help make it happen. They run lunch clubs. Deliver meals. Offer lifts. Sit with people who might otherwise spend the day alone. Help with digital access. Support social groups.
It is practical work. And it is personal work.
The aim is simple: make sure fewer people are left on the edge of community life.
What change looks like
Based on Fulforth’s Centre recent survey, they found:
- 91.4% of people say they feel happier
- 84.2% feel less isolated
- 78.9% feel less lonely
- 77.6% feel more confident and have higher self-esteem
- 74.1% report a better quality of life
- 72.4% are more physically active
Sarah’s story
Sarah is one of the volunteers who helps at the lunch club.
She spent 37 years working as a nurse.
“It was demanding, difficult and wonderful.”
When she retired, the structure of her days changed. So did the rhythm of her connections with other people.
Volunteering brought something back.
Not a job. Rather a place to go, a role to play and people to talk to.
“I believe that short, kind, validating interactions with others are enormously beneficial and important. They embody care, kindness and demonstrate our humanity.”
“I’ve swapped my nursing hat for my kitchen apron hat.”
Her story is just one of many at the Fulforth Centre. But it reflects something shared by a lot of volunteers: the sense that connection works both ways.
People come to give their time. They also find something in return.
The role of Point North
The Know Your Neighbourhood Fund is a UK Government programme supporting volunteering and tackling loneliness across 27 areas in England.
In County Durham, the funding is distributed by Point North.
The role of local grantmaking here is straightforward but important. Funding is placed directly with organisations like Sacriston Community Association, who already understand their communities.
That means support can be shaped around real needs. Not assumptions. Not distance. But lived experience.
In Sacriston, that has meant strengthening what already existed at the Fulforth Centre, and helping it reach more people who might otherwise be alone.
What changes lives here is not a single programme or moment. It is repetition and the continuation of services that residents know will be there for them, when they need it. These small things slowly rebuild connection.
Watch Sarah’s story
As #VolunteersWeek begins, Sarah’s experience sits alongside many others from the Fulforth Centre.
It is one story in a wider picture of what happens when local funding meets local people, and when communities are given the tools to support each other.