Unlocking capacity in the community
Retirees in the UK are fitter and healthier than ever before. However, loneliness, isolation, disengagement and depression continue to stalk the lives of many in retirement. How can we access and use the latent capacity that exists in the retired population to organise local community groups, activities and networks that could help to prevent these conditions and improve quality of life?
We hope that the launch of ‘Unlocking the Community’ by Simon Goodenough provides some inspiration and perspective on these issues. As well as being a great example of what can be achieved by social entrepreneurship, the ‘Healthy Living Community’ that Simon has helped to develop in Devon is a brave attempt to dissolve the walls between those working in the statutory sector and those in the voluntary sector.
As the UK prepares for the ageing of its population, it is a case-study that provides ideas and important lessons. The ILC-UK is keen to know what others think of the model pioneered in Devon. Could it work elsewhere? What are the risks? What further research is required?
James Lloyd
Martin Green said on July 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm:
Unlocking the Community is a very timely thinkpiece from the ILC. The reality of the future will mean that we have to be more creative and holistic in the way in which we support older people in our communities.
This thinkpiece reminds us that older people are citizens who are at the centre of our communities and it sets out a model of mutuality, reciprocity and an understanding of the value and contribution of older people to society.
This model gives us a fresh way of viewing our communities and unlocks the valuable resources within them.
Leon Kreitzman said on July 20th, 2007 at 4:35 pm:
I chair Age Concern Lewisham & Southwark which works in a faily large geographical area and has a total population of the order of 550,000.
It is a patchwork area and while there are communities of interest, communities of faith, communities of race, in truth it is weak in terms of communities of place,though there are distinct spatial entities.
We work in the Healthy Ageing area and I accept the general premise in the report that health and well-being in themselves are insufficient to bring older people together , but tend to be a by-product of older people being together for some other reason. Though they might be even more of a by-product were older people to be more frequently with younger people.The point I am making here is that the ‘natural’ inter-generational meeting points - the pub, church, football match or whatever have been segregated by age in south east London.
Consequently we are looking for other approaches. What I found lacking in the report was any indication of numbers.Referring to a small group does not help me much because we have small group[ activities, but we consider three or four a small group. These are useful activities, but they are expensive to establish and given the age of the participants there are very ral sustainability issues.
It would help to have a description of the context of the Devon initiativeh suc as the size and profile of the village; the numbers in the groups etc.
I say this because specific mentions are made in regard to interventions that directly concern us, such as reduction of alcohol abuse.
How many were abusing alcohol and what was the extent of the reduction. I emphasise this because we are taking a different approach in trying to reduce alcohol abuse, but if the numerical success of Unlocking the Community was significant we may wish to change direction.