New Fife Facebook group helps people to connect during pandemic

Since its creation at the start of the year, Making Friends in Fife, has seen membership skyrocket to over 1200 members.

It was co-founded by four friends, Dale Moir, Hayley Jade-Burt, Rachel Brown, and Donna Vanda Kase, who recognised that there needed to be a new way for people to connect as making new friends has become increasingly difficult during lockdown.

Dale, a software developer and co-founder of the group, said: “We decided to create it after observing some of the bullying culture that is present in other similar Facebook groups.

"We wanted to start a group where people could come to make new friends, and where they would be safe from any kind of online abuse or bullying.

"There are four of us who administrate the group – we set it up so that there is a wide range of ages and skills to give a fair balance to the moderation of the group.”

Since its launch in January this year, Dale said that the response has been amazing.

"The group has done exceptionally well so far – it’s amazing,” he said.

"There are a lot of dynamic people who have joined that have been setting up hill walks, coffee mornings, charity events, as well as a whole host of other things.

"There is a lot of success stories that come from the group – people are connecting with each other everyday.

He added that as people couldn’t meet in a normal way during lockdown, the group has given people the opportunity to have a bit of normality again.

"The group for me is a way to meet people outside of work, during lockdown you couldn’t meet people in a normal way so I kind of think about it like a bus stop where you would have a chat with whoever was waiting alongside you.

"We all feel really good about it, the sentiment among the whole admin team is that people are genuinely benefitting from the group.”

If you would like to join Making Friends in Fife, please visit: Making Friends in Fife.

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