Well Connected & Hartley Dental - Our Partnership

The team at Hartley Dental take our community responsibilities very seriously and realise that it isn’t just about ‘looking in’ - we need to ‘look out’ where possible and see how we can best support the communities of Plymouth, particularly when it comes to being (and staying) healthy.The obvious way to achieve this was to look to partner with a local charity - but who?Well this is where Well Connected come in!So how did we meet?This was by pure chance in the early part of 2017, when the planets aligned and Wendy Smith from Well Connected and Edd Jones from Hartley were introduced over email by a mutual business contact. A meeting was quickly arranged, to see how Well Connected and Hartley could work together to bring a benefit to the Plymouth community - needless to say, this was very positive and has led to great things! Read on...Who are Well Connected & what do they do?Well, put simply, they support healthier communities, with their vision being; “To inspire communities to achieve healthier smiles and positive lifestyles.”That sounds good to us!In addition to this, their mission is; “To be the expert providers in community engagement services for health improvement in the South West region, enabling more disadvantaged groups to access health improvement and adopt positive lifestyles.”That appeals to Hartley as a large part of what Well Connected do, is based around improving the Oral Health of the communities of Plymouth - which is a really important focus for everyone involved in Dentistry in Britain's Ocean City.If you want to read more about Well Connected’s mission click here.What have we achieved so far?Hartley and Well Connected have already worked together on two notable occasions. Firstly, the Hartley Team (Janie, Edd & Laura) carried out a brushing club at a local primary School, where the Hartley team delivered some key oral health messages to the Year 5 Children.It was a fun and interactive session, which included using disclosing tablets to help demonstrate how plaque can build up on the Children's teeth if they don’t brush properly - everyone had a great time as you can see below!Hartley then also hosted a charity BBQ night in aid of Well Connected in August 2017, which was really great fun and there were some fantastic raffle prizes were on offer - including a bottle of 10 year aged port and a trip on a catamaran off the Cornwall coast. The night was a roaring success with £255 being raised and donated directly to Well Connected! Wendy even won a boiler service - which equalled some light hearted ribbing on the night!So what’s next?!Well, 2018 promises to be a fantastic year for Well Connected and Hartley will be doing everything possible to support them with their mission.We have already partnered again to arrange a charity bike ride in May 2018, which will raise further funds for the cause. This will involve Edd, Charlie, the Well Connected team, former Peninsula Dental School Dentists and players from Plymouth Albion will be cycling from Okehampton to Plymouth via the Granite Way - it promises to be a really fun event!In addition, Hartley will be hosting another charity fundraising BBQ in the summer (date TBC), which hopefully will be bigger and better than 2017, with plenty of much needed fundraising as a result.Well Connected have also recently launched their “Open wide and step inside” project, which is a fantastic initiative focussing on delivering key oral health messages to children in Plymouth’s primary schools - yet another superb and important project from the Well Connected team!So there you have it… That is how Hartley and Well Connected work together for the good of the City and the health of its residents.Check out the Well Connected website here, for lots of information.