PUPILS have been wrapping up pairs of safe slippers to distribute to older members of the community in Torfaen to help prevent falls in the home this winter.

Torfaen Library’s Slipper Talk project aims to improve the health and wellbeing of older people, while bringing together young and old to encourage better understanding between the different generations.

Library staff have reached out to members of the Library at Home and Read Aloud groups and offered them new sage slippers, which have been specially designed to help prevent falls.

Primary schools, including Padre Pio Roman Catholic in Pontypool and St David’s Roman Catholic School in Pontnewydd, helped wrap the slippers alongside discussing some of the issues older people face.

St David’s Roman Catholic School pupil Isabella Sims said: “Older people are more likely to slip and get hurt.

“These slippers will help to keep them safe.”

Torfaen’s council’s executive member with responsibility for libraries, Cllr Alan Jones, said: “We see people at all stages of their lives in our libraries, from the babies who come to us to enjoy rhymes and stories, to the older members who we visit at home with our Library at Home and Read to Me services.”

He added: “This project is an opportunity to bring the younger and older generations of library users together in an imaginative way to discuss important health issues and help the different age groups to understand each other a little more.”

The Slipper Talk project is one of 14 projects to receive new Engaging Libraries funding from the Carnegie UK Trust and the Welcome Trust.

The funding aims to help local communities explore major health and wellbeing issues.