ERoSH members are busy championing the role of sheltered housing as a community resource as part of our 2011 Reaching Out campaign.
In each edition of our ezine we are going to showcase a member which is running projects to demonstrate the value of sheltered and retirement housing as a community asset to older people living in the community.
Our 2011 campaign Reaching Out – sheltered housing, a community resource is aimed at demonstrating how sheltered housing can be used as a community hub to provide services, activities and support to residents and older people living in the wider community.
Riverside has launched its LiveTime scheme which is a three-year pilot project using seven sheltered housing schemes and three community centres as ‘hubs’ for older people living in general needs housing in the wider community.
The LiveTime project aims at tackling welfare benefits, affordable warmth, financial inclusion, physical wellbeing, social and emotional wellbeing, and ensuring older people have a place in society and the community.
To achieve these goals they are running the following activities for sheltered housing residents and older people living in the wider community:
- Intergenerational learning activities, including an academy where older people rate a service provided by young people training in skills such as beauty therapy
- Carrying out wellbeing surveys and tenant health checks, which has had a positive response from older people is being rolled out into a wider programme
- A friendship club where older people can come to read a newspaper, chat or take part in different activities
- A communal gardening project where older people can grow their own vegetables
- Knit and natter sessions
- Exercise activities, such as armchair aerobics
- Offering advice on welfare benefits and affordable warmth.
Project manager for LiveTime Jane Mindar explained that they have selected sheltered housing schemes with good communal facilities and which have older people living in general needs tenancies in a radius of three-quarters of a mile around the scheme.
She said: “Through the LiveTime project we are taking an holistic approach to supporting older people to live independently and enjoy the best quality of life possible. We have found that many older people living in the wider community in general needs housing are invisible because they don’t engage with us over repairs etc, so we don’t necessarily come into contact with them easily.
“We have formed some strong partnerships through working with organisations that allow us to extend what we can offer tenants and partnership organisations can enhance what they can achieve through working with us. For us partnership working is valuable as we don’t seek to reinvent the wheel by providing services – we want to tap into the expertise of other organisations who already provide services for older people.”
The pilot project is taking place in Carlisle, London, Leicester, Runcorn and Birkenhead and Liverpool and Jane is interested in working with other housing associations and organisations who have an interest in supporting older people in these areas. If you are interested please email Jane or call her on 07875 379262.
If you want to find out more about our Reaching Out campaign and how you can get involved download our campaign pack. Please do keep us informed of any activities that support our campaign by emailing Lucy Beaumont – we’re not asking you to do anything different but just shout about the great work you are already doing.
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