Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

We recommend Walk and Talks are held at 10.30am on a Saturday morning and always start at the same place.

Our experience is that weekends can be an isolating time for many people. Charities and other providers often hold their events and activities on weekdays, whereas Saturdays can feel very long and lonely, especially for those that live alone or who don’t have friends or family nearby.

It’s easy to assume too that people who work or younger people do not experience loneliness or isolation but research shows this isn’t the case. The shift to home-working means that more people than ever are feeling socially disconnected. Holding your Walk and Talk on a Saturday means that people of all ages and circumstances can benefit.

However, the most important thing is that you and your community find the right time that works for you as the main thing is you walk and talk together regularly and become happier and healthier together.

It is also very important that walkers and talkers know you will be consistently there at the same place and same time every week. We recommend you make it as easy as possible for community members to join a Walk and Talk so nobody has to register or book, can join whenever they want to and know you will be there.

There are lots of great initiatives now aimed at specific groups. However, we believe that everyone in the community can benefit from walking and talking with their neighbours. We’d encourage you to make everyone welcome at your Walk and Talk.

In an hour, on average, existing Walk and Talks tend to cover up to about 3km (2 miles), starting and finishing at the same point. Sometimes it’s less (especially if there’s a downpour!) and sometimes it’s a bit more. If you aim for this to begin with then you can assess who comes along and whether it feels right for your group. It’s important to keep your Walk and Talks accessible for slower people – we’re definitely not about hiking! Walkers and Talkers should be encouraged to walk at their own pace for as long as they feel comfortable with.

No, Walk and Talks should not be aimed at any particular group of people – but everyone should be welcome. The ‘Talk’ part is simply that – it’s providing people with the opportunity to chat to others in their community. And, in our experience, it results in some great conversations! We’ve chatted about everything from football to fungi and local history to learning a language – and everything in between.

Of course, sometimes people may open up about their mental health. Most people are just looking for an empathetic listener but see our Safeguarding section if you have more serious concerns about an individual.

The beauty of Walk and Talk is that nobody needs to provide their personal details to book, register or make an ongoing commitment – you can simply turn up on a Saturday morning when you’re free.

Setting up a Facebook group or Instagram account is a great way to share information about your Walk and Talks and promote them to anyone who wishes to follow. However, we would advise against setting up a WhatsApp group for individual Walkers and Talkers for the following reasons:

• It involves collecting telephone numbers which everyone in the group will then have access to. This could cause problems with people contacting other group members without their permission or in ways that are not relevant or appropriate to the weekly Walks.
• If some people don’t want to be in the WhatsApp group, it risks creating a clique amongst those who are, which isn’t something you want to encourage.

You may want to start a small WhatsApp group for volunteers, as it can be helpful to organise the rotas. But do make sure that people are happy to be added and share their numbers in this way. You might want to add something along these lines to the group info:

This WhatsApp group is for the sole use of discussing and arranging independent community Walk and Talks. All contributions should be polite, appropriate and professional. Please ensure all personal data you have access to remains private and confidential. This personal data should only be used for communication in this WhatsApp group and only for relevant communication about Walk and Talks. It should not be distributed to third parties.

In the unlikely event of any Walk and Talk problems see Your Guide to Running a Successful Walk and Talk – which has all the help and information you need. The very community led nature of Walk and Talks and the fact that walkers and talkers look after each other and Walk and Talk at their own pace means that any issues are very rare.