Background
Glasgow’s Golden Generation has been supporting older adults for over 70 years. We operate three day-centres in the East, North West and South of the City, have a network of clubs and offer befriending as well as welfare support.
We use these methods to tackle the loneliness and isolation which is too often felt in the older community and are delighted to be recipients of Vegware’s support.
Welcome back!
Back in March 2020, Glasgow’s Golden Generation closed its three day-centres across the city to protect our older adult service users, volunteers and staff. Like everyone, at the time we hoped that the centres would reopen in a matter of weeks, but those weeks have turned to months to over a year.
However, with the vaccination programme well underway and with Scotland slowly coming out of lockdown, we are delighted to have thrown open the doors to welcome service users back to the centres once again.
As the centres have been used as busy food hubs since March 2020, delivering over 23,000 food parcels to older adults, a lot of work has been done to make them welcoming and safe for older adults once more. This includes painting, decorating, new Covid protocols, training and much more to ensure the centres are able to run like clockwork once again.
While centres have a usual running capacity of up to 120 older adults per day, initially less than a third of this will be able to attend. Each centre will welcome 12 service users each day with additional measures in place to make the environment as Covid secure as possible. This is to ensure the safety of all service users, staff and volunteers and will be reviewed as restrictions continue to ease. The day centres will be run at a loss initially with health and safety a priority.
Gardening
We were delighted to welcome volunteers back to the David Cargill Centre last week. The volunteers have made a great start on the outside area, helping with weeding and a general tidy up. We have also identified substantial work required at the centres to bring the gardens back up to a respectable standard. Unfortunately, lockdown has left the gardens in a state of disrepair. We have identified a number of funding opportunities, which will hopefully help fund the repairs and upkeep of the gardens.
Thank you!
We are very grateful for the continued support of Vegware; thanks to your generous support older adults in Glasgow are once again able to meet in person and are supported to feel less isolated and alone.
“Being picked up to go to the centre this morning was like getting out of prison after a long sentence. I’ve spent so much time indoors over the last 18 months with my family visiting but not daring to come in because they wanted to keep me safe. It was just lovely to get on the bus and see some familiar faces again. Lockdown was a long and lonely time, I’m just glad to be back.”
Agnes, David Paton Centre attendee
