A CRUCIAL health and social care project is going out into the community to help local people recover from the pandemic.

Your Voice has relaunched with a new look team all geared up and ready to go as they take their fight against social isolation onto the next level.

Using new Covid recovery funding they will be looking at setting up community cafes, hubs and taking their support where it is needed most.

There will be a renewed focus on drugs and alcohol recovery, as well as challenging poverty, supporting refugees and helping people who have been left feeling lonely.

Newly appointed recovery development co-ordinator Isobel Dempster said: "We are really looking forward to getting out there.

"We will have new hubs in the Bank Street Scout Hall and we want to support people with lived experience of alcohol and drugs.

"This is about recovery, being there for people when they need support the most.

"We will also link in with mental health, we want to make a difference.

"We are here so that people are no longer struggling on their own and they can keep in touch.

"We are shining a light on recovery, no one is in the dark."

On the drug and alcohol front Your Voice will work closely with Inverclyde health and social care partnership, the Homeless Forum, Inverclyde Centre, Moving On and Jericho House to make sure everyone has a fighting chance of recovering from addiction.

But as well as focusing on recovery, the Clyde Square-based organisation will continue its 'community connectors' project, building on the work they carried out with a helpline during the Covid crisis.

Joining the team is Gaynor Lochhead, who has worked on a number of grassroots projects such as the foodshare scheme.

She said: "I am delighted to be involved with Your Voice, this is my dream job.

"The community connectors is a great way of helping people and looking after their wellbeing."

Her colleagues Jamie Dalgoutte and Dawn Brooke will be looking at ways to fight poverty and support a 'New Scots' project for all the refugees settling in Inverclyde.

On top of this they are also looking for carers to have their say on a new review, by arranging a series of conversation cafes this month.

*To find out more about Your Voice or the cafes contact 728628.