How we can help
Our Services help and support well over two thousand local older people each year. We deal with more than 1500 issues requiring Advice a year, including several hundred that we dealt with in community languages. The greatest number of issues concern benefits and other money issues. Housing and housing repair problems are the second-largest issue we deal with, followed by health and community care issues, then consumer concerns, family and personal issues, etc.
Our two Seniors’ Centres have around 1,000 members between them, ranging from those who attend daily to those who drop in for special events, or when they want company or advice. Members benefit from social engagement and friendship, a wide range of interesting and healthy activities, outings, health seminars and other special events.
We support around 350 people a year after they have been discharged from local hospitals, linking them in to essential services, supporting them to claim benefits and other entitlements, and helping to re‑build their confidence.
We support local older people to get their voices heard where it can make a difference. Our Voice and Choice Project has achieved Beacon Status from Home Office assessors for its work supporting older refugees to find their voice.
We also support local community and other groups working with older people, to support their older members appropriately. Some of this capacity‑building work is targeted particularly at groups working with black and minority ethnic communities, whose older populations may be quite small, and so lack the expertise necessary to support them.
In 2006 – 2007 we were very excited to take a new project, which is investigating the barriers that prevent older people from black and minority ethnic groups accessing services. We hope to then suggest and implement solutions to these issues. This should mean that services are easier for everyone to access.