Engage with Age Recovery Funding (360G-CR-4908684)

COVID19 -Engage with Age requires funding to be able to meet needs for engagement with older people, and to improve the organisation?s capacity to adjust services. It requires funding for the following: 1. Funding to establish a telephone befriending service (which will eventually graduate into a wider befriending service post-grant). 2. Funding to adjust existing group services into individual/ remote services for people who are not online and people who are online. 3. Funding to increase the organisation?s capacity to meet demand and adjust services. 1. The Need for a Befriending service Engage with Age?s PAL Project?s initial design from 2017 was for a two part programme: 1) group activities; and 2). a befriending programme. This plan was informed by research with Queen?s University Belfast which evaluated Engage with Age?s previous group and one to one engagement work. A PAL Project funding bid was declined by the Big Lottery Fund in 2017. The group work element of the PAL Project has been supported by Comic Relief, but the need for befriending services has been highlighted in various forums and in research since then. There is increasing demand in Belfast from the Connected Community Care Hubs, a referral pathway from the Belfast Trust. The Hubs have received c4,000 new referrals from March 2020, and Engage with Age is receiving significant numbers. In parts of Belfast there is a two year waiting list to become part of a befriending programme. Engage with Age is a member of the City-Wide Group on Isolation and Loneliness, and the Healthy Ageing Strategic Partnership, both facilitated by Age Friendly Belfast/ Belfast Health Board/ Belfast City Council. These forums contains providers of befriending services. Of the 24 befriending services across the whole of Northern Ireland 12 are medical condition specific (cancer/ Alzheimer?s/ bereavement etc), 8 are morning phone call services. A survey of befriending services in 2018 highlighted 80% are over demand while 75% are under capacity with volunteers. The need to increase resources/ funding of befriending programmes is highlighted in the current Belfast City Council/ Belfast Health Board ?Age Friendly Belfast Plan?. Engage with Age has good ongoing working relationships with other providers including Age NI, Red Cross, Alzheimer?s Society, Volunteer Now, Campaign to End Loneliness, and Age Friendly Belfast, thus ensuring collaboration and cross referral of participants to the right organisation. Engage with Age has been preparing a longer-term funding bid to Garfield Weston Foundation to initiate a befriending service in Jan 2021, however, Covid 19 and the need to for remote support of existing clients, and new referrals has accelerated this need. The plan to establish a befriending service has been discussed, and minuted, by the PAL Steering Committee, has been discussed and minuted at Engage with Age Trustee meetings for the last year. Establishing a new service is part of Engage with Age?s new Strategic Plan 2020-2023 which was formally adopted by the company on 15th May 2020. T,his programme, therefore does not represent a ?pivot? of services but a long-term development of this strand of work based on research and need. The PAL Pyramid programme itself represents a part-way development towards a befriending programme. Engage with Age already has a cohort of volunteer befrienders, and a waiting list of those requiring support. The service will be established using quality standards from the UK Befriending Networks, and in line with Northern Ireland safeguarding safety standards for both befrienders and befriendees. We anticipate 20 befrienders, supporting up to 60 befriendees by January 2021. When Covid-19 guidelines change the style of service will be reviewed. It is intended that these befrienders will graduate to a longer-term programme funded by Garfield Weston Foundation in early 2021. Significantly, while Engage with Age notes an increase in demand, it also notes an increase in the desire to help, and this programme will follow Engage with Age?s principles of ?Community Development?, creating sustainable, community lead solutions. This programme has a budget of £10,360. 2. Funding to transform existing group services into individual/ remote services for people who are not online and people who are online Half of Engage with Age?s participants are not online/ don?t have the capacity to get online. Since mid-March 2020 we have surveyed approx. 300 members. The organisation has prioritised efforts to get those who can get online to do so, through one to one coaching and support, and incentives to get online, through ?Zoom? video meetings with Older People?s Forums, ?Zoom? Chocolate/ Online Bingo, Facebook activities, and other incentives. Engage with Age staff require additional training and support. A small amount of additional funds is required (£1,000) to support getting older people online, as the main staff cost is already funded by other funders. For those without capacity to get online, Engage with Age needs to transform its work and there is already much work funded by other agencies. An immediate response was the production of The PAL Gazette, a hard copy newspaper for older people, most of whom are not online. Hard copies go to a mailing list of 400 people, with a further 1,300 hard copies distributed to sheltered/ nursing housing, as well as online. The paper features significant content written by older people, as well as incentives for older people to contact Engage with Age via telephone, and important health information. This is a fortnightly paper for older people by older people, representing their views and needs. As a spin-off, a purely participant produced paper ?The Friendly Times? will be produced by PAL Project participants. 6 editions will be produced and distributed. Some additional funding is required for new initiatives to support people who can?t get online. Funds are also sought to develop socially distanced activities. At this point that could be a new iteration of ?The Slipped Disco? into ?The Socially Distanced Slipped Disco? or a Drive In Disco. Plus some funds to transform some existing programmes into off-line version. Overall cost is £12,613. Engage with Age highlights it is also undertaking other work adapted to the new circumstances, funded through other health and wellbeing contracts. These include supported walking activities, Facebook Dance and Movement classes, Zoom Poetry, and a one day festival called ?The Big Day Inside Out? on the 25th June 2020. 3. Funding to increase the organisation?s capacity to meet demand and adjust services. Engage with Age has to increase its capacity to manage change and new programmes. Currently its Director is part-time working three days per week. Additional capacity is required to increase capacity to 4 days per week(£3,900 expenditure). The organisation needs increased PR/ Media relations. Currently there is no provision within the company for media work, and there is not an increased need to raise awareness of services and promote work to external audiences (£7440 in expenditure). EWA seeks 2.5 days per week of media support. Members of staff require additional training in digital skills. One additional impact of Covid-19 is trust funds moving away from providing core support for organisations, and Engage with Age has a deficit of £4,000 which is seeks from Comic Relief?s Covid Recovery Fund. The overall cost of this element is £15,840.