AGE ACTION ALLIANCE
LONELINESS & ISOLATION WORKING GROUP MEETING held 8th March ’18
The meeting hosted by The Castlehaven Community Association, London was opened at 13-30 by the Acting Chair Caroline Billington (Community Christmas) with thirteen members present. Members sent best wishes to Chair Shelagh Marshall following her hip replacement operation.
Age Action Alliance Update - Denise Keating (ENEI) gave a presentation on the future development of the AAA. The new Advisory Board comprising ENEI, EngAgeNet and DWP would be meeting on 18th April and there would also be a Working Group Chairs meeting on 26th April. The AAA website was to be updated and a request was issued for Information, Activities & Future plans. The group asked if there could be better engagement with the Health Service and Denise responded that it was intended to have a Working Group on ‘Care’ and that she would add this to their agenda. It was suggested that consideration be given to the AAA holding a Conference with an invitation to the new Minister for Loneliness, Denise stated that she would put the suggestion to the Advisory Board.
Health and Social Care Paper – this was scheduled for release in July 2018 and copies would be circulated to members of the group.
AMI presentation by Lois Muddiman - The presentation covered ‘Recruiting Volunteers in Oxfordshire’ but its success has prompted the possibility of rolling out the scheme nationwide in the future. AMI (Friend in French) is a web based befriending matching tool enabling volunteers to match with a client of a befriending organisation. Several organisations have got together in a ‘network’ registered on the AMI website where prospective volunteers can input their postcode and set distance parameters to view anonymous lists of people with age ranges, interests, needs etc. The volunteer selects their ‘match’ and contacts the member organisation where further details can be taken and the necessary checks made.
Big Lottery Fund – As stated in my last report ‘Reaching Communities’ was proving to be successful. ‘Awards for All’ was now to be focussed on Community Engagement and it was confirmed that applications up to £10k were now localised, larger grants are still dealt with nationally.
Alexandra (Chatty Café Scheme) – Alex explained the scheme which is a ‘take’ on existing schemes such as “happy to chat†badges and “happy to talk / not today†place mats. It involves Designated Tables in Cafes being set aside where people will be comfortable knowing a social chat could happen.
It was suggested our next meeting cover Mental Health Loneliness Issues (Public Health England to lead.
I have since been in touch with the Chair who has accepted an offer from the Derbyshire Trusted Befriending Network to present their “Evaluation of the Benefits of Befriending in Derbyshireâ€
The next meeting of the group is to be held on Tuesday 12th June ‘18
Peter Frakes (EMLLF)
Janice Cooper, 8th March 2018