Reports & learning around Covid-19
During the Covid-19 crisis community groups have adapted with great energy and flexibility to reach and engage with older people. Working with our delivery partners and our Ageing Better partners around the country, we have produced a number of free reports and guides. We hope that these will be of use to other community groups during this time.
We have been focusing on making sure members are not excluded because they don’t have access to the internet. Click here for our work around Bridging the Digital Divide.
COMMUNITY CONNECTORS DURING COVID-19
The needs of many clients increased as a result of lockdown. There were also new constraints on possible ways of working to support social connection. So the Community Connectors team quickly adapted their practice, using supported walks as a new key method of working with clients.
Outreach during Covid-19
During the Covid-19 pandemic, our Outreach Team had to find new ways to proactively find and engage with the socially isolated older people who ‘no one knows’. When regulations have allowed, they have used innovative methods to meet with older people at pop-up events in parks and other outdoor spaces.
ABC TELECONFERENCING GUIDE
Teleconferencing has been an important and useful tool to engage with our members who are not online, and allowing people to get together in a group. We have created a guide to getting started with teleconferencing groups.
A WARM WELCOME IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19
This document is a brief guide for practitioners who want to organise welcoming groups and activities for older people so supporting their social connection despite the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. It details strategies currently being used by Camden practitioners in their adapted groups and complements our earlier Warm Welcome guide. Click here to read the guide.
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DEVELOPING A PHONE BEFRIENDING SERVICE DURING COVID-19
Following the introduction of the March 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, Age UK Camden identified the need to set up a telephone befriending service. This was a response to the flood of anxious calls from older people, who needed both practical and social-emotional support as they began this period of isolation. This report shows how key aspects of ABC’s Outreach Team practice supported rapid innovation in a crisis situation. Click here to read the full report.
Role of Connector during Covid-19
The situation with Covid-19 was constantly changing and evolving. A connector within Ageing Better is an approach to help identify, reach and connect with socially isolated people and through a person centred approach, connect them to activities in their local area. In this paper, we explored how a connector role evolved against this backdrop of uncertainty.
THIRD AGE PROJECT GETTING MEMBERS ONLINE
85% of Third Age Project (TAP) service users live alone and over 60% aren’t connected to the internet. During lockdown a majority were required to self-isolate due to being in high risk categories and thus became acutely isolated. Here, TAP tell us how they supported service users to get online, access online shopping, join activities and reconnect with family & friends during lockdown.