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.
Our Work in 2021
While in-person services have been paused we have been delivering essential food packages, giving telephone befriending and advice and launched our tablet and app project to get older adults connected online.
Thanks to the support of Vegware we can continue our efforts to combat loneliness throughout the current restrictions.
Since our last report we have continued to deliver essential food packages to isolated older adults. Each week our support workers call round all of our current service users and any new referrals to check in on them and understand their current needs and have a chat. From this we make up our orders, purchase food and our drivers deliver the food out into the community along with a weekly newsletter (latest one attached) and information about our other services. For some older adults this is their only contact that day or week.
We continue to offer telephone befriending and welfare advice. This has been a popular service throughout the pandemic although there is a natural turnover as peoples’ circumstances change and we currently have 251 clients.
“I would like to thank you for all your help in the past year, you have done more for me than I can thank you for” – Mr D, befriending client
Our tablet and app project continues to grow in popularity with Connecting Scotland just announcing they will deliver us another 20 tablets to distribute among older adults in the community and train them in their use. We also have over 300 users of the app. We continue to add new content regularly and our weekly ‘wee blethers’ have been well received by users
“I’m thoroughly enjoying it, it’s really great. I enjoy the wee zoom meetings that we have on a Friday. I also use it (to keep in touch with) the church” Helena, tablet and app user
We await the lifting of restrictions that will allow us to resume in-person service delivery and have made preparations to improve our centres and make them as safe as possible in terms of PPE, cleaning, one-way systems and ventilation. We will look to integrate the most successful parts of our covid-19 work, such as the tablets, into our in-person delivery and we anticipate a gradual return whereby we maintain the capacity to support people at home for some time this year, even as others can return.
We look forward to updating Vegware throughout the year on our progress.
Thank you again for your continued and generous support.
