It has been a busy and fruitful year for ALFCIC in 2025, and we have undertaken many projects across our core Peer Support work and Peer related projects both online and in the local community.
Core Work
Emma has continued to consult and train, online, for peer led national mental health charity, Imroc, one of the leading providers of Mental Health Peer Support training in the UK. Her work involves training Peer Support workers working in the NHS and voluntary sectors, training Peer Supervisors, training NHS teams to prepare for employing Peer Support workers, and undertaking bespoke work co-producing and facilitating courses for NHS trusts.
In 2025 Emma has trained 6 cohorts of the Peer Support Worker training course, 4 Peer Supervision courses, 3 NHS team preparation courses, and 1 bespoke course for an NHS trust.
Emma has also provided wellbeing consultancy and training to a local business in Launceston and written and facilitated a ‘Chronic Pain Management’ workshop for a Launceston based charitable organisation.
ALF related community projects – pro bono work
ALF has found innovative ways of ‘doing Peer Support’ in the community, utilising Emma’s additional skills and experience in music and events organisation.
These are predominantly via Launceston Folk Club and Wreckers Radio.
Launceston Folk Club (LFC) Project
LFC was set up in 2023 to provide an inclusive space where ALFCIC can meet its aims of building community, supporting people to find a sense of belonging and meet people, reduce social isolation and loneliness, support people to follow their passions and utilise their gifts, strengths, and talents, providing community upliftment and engagement in social activities.
We do this by organising and supporting small, medium, and large-scale events in Launceston and across Cornwall and Devon.
In 2025 we have:
- Run 14 folk club concerts across Launceston, Barnstaple, and Falmouth
- Organised and run the Borderlands Festival of Folklore, Music, Arts and Culture in Launceston in collaboration with Make Stuff Happen CIC, Museum of British Folklore, Elmsgrove Community Arts CIC, Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft and Magick
- 12 Monthly Songwriters’ Open Mic with Keep Audio Co – where we support young and upcoming songwriters and provide a gathering place for local people
- 12 Monthly Folk Sessions with Keep Audio Co – supporting local musicians and ALF beneficiaries in an informal creative setting
- Supported two Cornwall and Devon based Music Management organisations to run events in Launceston and wider Cornwall bringing people together for upliftment and social engagement
- Supported Cornwall Folk Festival by volunteering at the festival in Wadebridge thus providing outreach and building our network
As a result of the LFC project, we have supported ALF beneficiaries in the local community in the following ways:
- providing opportunities for volunteering thus proffering meaning and purpose, reducing social isolation/loneliness, helping beneficiaries to find belonging and make friends
- inviting young and upcoming local musicians to provide support for nationally and internationally acclaimed artists and gain access to our Cornish and wider UK network enabling them to pursue their passions
- gifted ‘free’ tickets to ticketed events to those who are financially vulnerable, experiencing emotional distress and/or social isolation/loneliness, older people, young people
- providing informal peer support to those who would not be reached via more formal avenues
We also met ALF aims to support the wider community, via LFC, by collaborating and contracting with local businesses, thus supporting the local economy.
Wreckers Radio Project
Wreckers Radio is our newest project with an aim to ‘support independent musicians and grassroots venues West of the Exe’. We took over the running of Cornwall Folk Radio in early 2024 and rebranded it to Wreckers Radio so that we could support the work of musicians based in the SW across musical genres.
It currently meets some of ALF’s aims by extending our reach for supporting people to follow their passions, supporting the careers of local musicians and grassroots venues during an economically difficult time for the creative and hospitality industries, providing community upliftment and opportunities for volunteering.
We are in partnership with Cornwall Folk Festival on the radio project and in 2025 we have:
- livestreamed the FAR stage concerts at Cornwall Folk Festival
- volunteered at Cornwall Folk Festival
- interviewed musicians at CFF and musicians playing at LFC
Wreckers Radio also supports ALF projects’ marketing as well as helping to promote music events from other venues and organisations around Devon and Cornwall.
Due to personnel and time constraints, development of this project has been limited in 2025, and we are currently working with stakeholders on development plans for 2026/27 in line with ALF CIC aims and objectives, particularly around expanding volunteering opportunities for ALF beneficiaries in the SW.
Looking ahead to 2026
We will continue the ALF core work in consultancy and peer support training with more work in the process of being commissioned into Spring 2026.
We plan to develop our core work in the community based on consultation with local organisations who have expressed an interest in commissioning workshops and from local surveys that have identified a need for peer support, particularly for women.
We will develop our consultancy/training work with local businesses and consider running adhoc wellbeing related workshops in the local community.
LFC has a programme of events planned for 2026 with the first being held on Sunday 8th Feb. In 2026, concerts are being planned carefully to ensure that we have enough capacity and resources to facilitate events and that they remain viable in a challenging economic climate, while also meeting ALF aims.
We have developed a survey that has begun to be circulated at events in December 2025 and will be circulated at in person events and via email early in 2026. The survey is designed to assess the impact of ALF projects to date and to consult with stakeholders and the local community about community need, which we will use this as evidence for future planning and funding requirements.
While we may consider grant funding applications that can support our work, we aim to be self-supporting wherever possible and will ensure that any grants we obtain make sense in relation to the burden of reporting requirements related to some grants.
We are looking forward to going into 2026 with renewed motivation and excitement as we consolidate what we have achieved in 2025 and deepen our impact in the community.
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