• Care and repair. West Devon Care and Repair assists homeowners who are over 60 or disabled with organising repairs or adaptations to their home. It is a project started in 1994 and managed by Devon and Cornwall Housing Association in partnership with West Devon Borough Council and Social Services. Despite ongoing funding difficulties, the project helps over 300 people every year to stay safely in their own homes.

• Handyperson Scheme. West Devon Handyperson Scheme is a mobile repairs service that makes home visits to carry out small repairs. Jobs that are too large can be referred to the Care and Repair Scheme. The service is available to all West Devon residents, whether homeowners or tenants, who are over the age of 60 or disabled. Funding since its start in 2000 has come from the Health Improvement Forum and the Community Fund, but future funding has still to be secured.

• Ring and Ride. Managed by a local volunteer committee, the Tavistock and District Local Transport Partnership (TDLTP) operates the ‘Ring and Ride’ service. This provides two accessible minibuses to help elderly and disabled people go about their essential everyday business.

• Drop-in centres. These are arranged by the charity ‘Tavistock and Area Support Services (TASS) ’ in eight villages and serve to provide a focus for mutual support. TASS arranges many other social activities with a similar aim in mind.

• Old Peoples’ Rest Room. Situated in the middle of Tavistock, this room provides a warm room where old people can rest when out shopping.

• Tavistock Town guided tours. Guided tours are already arranged from time to time by Town Museum volunteers but are not generally known about. This project seeks to establish a regular schedule of guided tours, with retired people acting as guides, and to ensure that their availability is well publicised.
  

• New sheltered accommodation. Waiting lists for all forms of housing for older people are very long but there is a particularly strong demand for more sheltered accommodation, especially if this were managed in conjunction with residential and nursing units.
  

• Committee work support. The management committees of several voluntary organisations are finding it difficult to provide the necessary secretarial and book-keeping support from within their own membership. There is an idea of forming a pool of retired people who could offer this service for the overall community benefit.

This site will be continuously maintained to keep track of issues and projects as they develop. Use the form on each page of this site to make to make your own suggestions and comments, or to raise questions.