The Oxford Big Tea Party

Aspire Oxford is organising a sponsored tea party event as part of the national Great Get Together initiative, hosted by Cutteslowe Community Association (CCA) in their local community centre. The event will help to launch Team Oxford, a movement to get everyone creating a better city: one that’s happier, healthier, more connected and more empowered. A key driver for the tea party is to encourage and enable more volunteer drivers and befrienders, which aligns with Team Oxford’s ambition to make it easier for a wider range of people to make a difference for the city.

This event will be a catalyst event; it will focus on raising public awareness of the critical role of community transport to help combat social isolation and reduce loneliness in elderly people, and maintain dignified, independent living. It will also act as a call to action. This is an urgent issue for our society and increasingly bleak in Oxfordshire, as local authority funding is cut back further for vital services that have enabled independent and connected living for the elderly for many years. The event aims to raise funds from individuals and businesses to support local community transport services, and OCF will match-fund contributions up to a maximum of £2,500.

Working with CCA, elderly residents living in Oxford will be invited to a special afternoon tea, consisting of cake, sandwiches and drinks, with a focus on those in the Cutteslowe area. Aspire’s Community Transport passengers and local elderly living in other areas of Oxford City will also be invited. A key aspect of the event will be inter-generational mixing; volunteers and Oxford Brookes/Oxford University Student Hub students will be invited to participate in putting on the event.

Kate Parrinder from OCF will be there to support this initiative. Local businesses are invited to sponsor a table at the party at a cost of £500. All funds raised would be divided between Aspire and Cutteslowe Community Association to meet their local community transport needs. Sponsors will also be asked if they would like to volunteer at the event to help serve afternoon tea and to talk to elderly residents, and to sign up to Team Oxford.