![Oxley Community Transport Service's Nakita Somerville, Leslee Bond and Sharon Tibbs. Picture by Peter Hardin Oxley Community Transport Service's Nakita Somerville, Leslee Bond and Sharon Tibbs. Picture by Peter Hardin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/205515339/3d261c0f-1716-492d-a217-bab084dd1eeb.jpg/r0_0_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Oxley Community Transport wants to help support the most isolated members of the community: the elderly.
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The company will launch a new volunteer-led program called 'Volunteer Visitors' on Saturday, July 1.
The initiative will see a carer matched with an elderly member of the community. The aim is for the pair to meet up once a week to chat over a cuppa.
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The program is funded through the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme.
Oxley Community Transport will soon begin playing match-maker between the volunteer carers and their elderly clients.
"It'll be match of interests," Oxley Community Transport CEO Sharon Tibbs said.
"So, if the volunteer likes trains and the elderly person likes trains they would have some common ground to start off with."
Program coordinator Nakita Somerville said the company is hoping to make some of the matches based on cultural backgrounds and languages spoken.
"[It's for] those people who may feel isolated because of the language they speak," she said.
"So hopefully we can make some matches that way as well."
The aim of the program is to help reduce the impact of social isolation on those within the elderly community.
Oxley Community Transport board chairman Ray Tate said COVID made it evident how isolated the elderly are.
"We identified back in COVID, we were not running transports at the time," Mr Tate said
"We had the staff here ringing all the clients to check if they were okay, or if they desperately needed anything.
"What we identified is that COVID made no difference to them aside from them not being able to get their groceries ... because they were already so socially isolated."
Mrs Somerville has seen the issue firsthand.
"I was on the other side of desk answering the phones for these people, I know how isolated they are and they just want to chat," she said.
"Unfortunately, working here [Oxley Community Transport] we cannot chat with them all day long and I think them having someone who can visit them once or twice a week will be good for them."
"Through a company survey sent out to their clients, they recognised the need for this program within the community," Mr Tate said.
Another project the company is working on is a community garden for the elderly. A second issue identified within that same survey was how much their clients missed gardening.
"What we were finding was that the elderly couldn't, didn't want to due to their conditions, or moved into a home where the lawns and all were maintained," Mr Tate said.
The garden will be built on a disused council water basin located at the back of Oxley Community Transport facilities.
It will include wheelchair ramps and raised garden beds allowing easy access for the elderly.
Mayor Russell Webb is thrilled about the community garden.
"We're just waiting on documentation from council, but it'll be a great asset for the community," he said.
"The basin doesn't normally hold water, unless it's a heavy flow."
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