LOOPs: North West Thursday, 30 July 2015 East Neighbourhood Office – Niddrie Mains Road Note of Meeting:

PRESENT: Lorna Russell (Queensferry Care), Su Millar (LifeCare), Patricia Eason (Cramond Community Council, Cramond Dementia Friendly Communities), Heather Yang (Volunteer Centre Edinburgh), Sandra Brown (Befriending Networks), Joanie (Bethanie Christian Trust), Felicity (Bethany Christian Trust), Sam Collins (Carr Gomm), Andrew Senew (Home Instead) APOLOGIES:

1. Introductions: Noted

2. Heather Yang: LOOPs North West Project Heather provided a comprehensive update about the work that Volunteer Centre Edinburgh has been delivering on behalf of the North West LOOP. In addition to the publication of This includes:

The LOOPS Phoneline which provides crucial signposting services for members of the community and service providers alike. The telephone number for the service is 0131 603 8311. The service is available from 10am – 2pm daily and is available to anyone who would like to call to find out about local activities for older people – no matter where that might be in the city.

For further information about the kinds of activity going on in the South East area for older people please call the phoneline or check out the LOOPs Projects’ website at http://www.loopsprojects.org.uk

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council is a company limited by guarantee No. SC173582 and a registered Scottish charity No. SC009944. Registered Office: 14 Ashley Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5PX

3. Sandra Brown: Befriending Networks Sandra attended to speak to the group about the work that Befriending Networks carries out across the country in support of the delivery of Befriending Services and Projects. The majority of the information can be found within the attached slides.

For further information about the work of the Befriending Networks Sandra’s contact details are:

Sandra Brown: Training OfficerBefriending Networks Email: sandra@befriending.co.uk Tel: 0131 261 8799

4. Su Millar: Life Care – Vintage Vibes Su attended from LifeCare to speak about the work LifeCare is carrying out in partnership with The Broomhouse Centre. LifeCare will be focussing on the north of the city with The Broomhouse Centre focussing in the south.

This ambitious project will work with both individuals and groups to identify individualised, person- and group-centred ways to deliver social support. This includes:

1-1 befriending in the home 1-1 befriending outside the home Hospital visiting Friendship pools/groups Pet visiting/therapy Family visiting and other activities which might be defined in the future.

The target agegroup for the project will be over 60s living in Edinburgh and who are: Socially isolated or at risk of social isolation Older people with mental health issues and hard to reach groups such as: men, LGBT people or people from

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council is a company limited by guarantee No. SC173582 and a registered Scottish charity No. SC009944. Registered Office: 14 Ashley Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5PX

minority ethnic communities. Older people living with dementia, carers and people with a disability of long term condition.

For further information please do see the slides or contact:

Su Millar. Chief Executive LifeCare 2 Cheyne Street Edinburgh su@lifecare-edinburgh.org.uk 0131 343 0940

Marie Anderson Centre ManagerThe Broomhouse Centre79/89 Broomhouse CrescentEdinburghEH11 3RHTel/Fax 0131 455 7731 marie@broomhousecentre.org.uk

5. Joanie and Felicity – Bethany Christian Trust – Passing the BatonJoanie and Felicity provided a discussion about the Passing the Baton project that Bethany Christian Trust has been delivering now over a few years and which has become a very valuable resource for older people within the city. The Passing the Baton project works with older people to ensure that appropriate support is available through befriending and which is delivered in pairs.

The service is not specifically geared to support clients to join Christian communities and is available to all, however it has been found that, of many of their at-risk clients, gaining fellowship through church communities has provided significant additional benefits in terms of reaching stability.

Isobel and Gilly also talked through the range of Bethany Christian Trust projects with work being carried out largely around supporting homeless people or at people at risk of homelessness to remain in existing or new properties and to begin to re-establish within the community.

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council is a company limited by guarantee No. SC173582 and a registered Scottish charity No. SC009944. Registered Office: 14 Ashley Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5PX

For the full range of information about the services provided by Bethany Christian Trust please see their website at: http://www.bethanychristiantrust.com/ or contact Jilly or Isobel on: 0131 561 8930

6. Stefan Milenkovic – EVOC – Strengthening the Voice of Older People: As part of the work of the LOOPs EVOC and Pilmeny Development Project have a role in ‘Strengthening the voice of older people.’ There are obvious a range of services across the city with a similar aim and which do an excellent job – such as NEECAG in Portobello which provides a forum for older people to come together.

In the past there were a range of these forums but many have struggled to maintain themselves following funding cuts or dispersed when key individuals or activists have moved on or taken on other responsibilities.

We will be developing a piece of work over the end of August/beginning of September to take a look at (amongst other things) the questions ‘How do older people want to be engaged/consulted in 2015?’ and ‘What does a strengthened voice look like?’

We will send around further details of what this piece of work looks like in the very near future and would welcome input from the widest range of partners from across sectors and fields.

7. Stefan Milenkovic – EVOC – Dementia Befriending Collaborative: Earlier in the year the Life Changes Trust announced a fund to support Dementia Befriending services across the city and a number of LOOPS partners are known to have applied to this fund with little success. Understanding the importance of befriending services, particularly for people living with dementia, as well as families, friends, partners and carers City of Edinburgh Council has provided an investment to the LOOPs to develop a Dementia Befriending Collaborative.

This work will see the engagement of a part time worker at EVOC whose role will be to bring together a range of organisations to form a collaborative to strengthen current service delivery and to bring additional service to the city.

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council is a company limited by guarantee No. SC173582 and a registered Scottish charity No. SC009944. Registered Office: 14 Ashley Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5PX

Amongst other things the work will involve work with funders and organisations with the aim of streamlining various processes around the development of befriending work which will include: work with funders to identify common outcomes and reporting frameworks, common training and support tools and collaborative work to make applications.

If you have any advice or thoughts about this work then please contact Stef Milenkovic at EVOC:

Stef.milenkovic@evoc.org.uk 0131 555 9100

8. Next Meeting: The next meeting of the South East LOOPS network will take place:

Friday, 9th October 2015 10:00 – 12:00

Libertus Services 20 Gracemount Drive, EH16 6RN

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council is a company limited by guarantee No. SC173582 and a registered Scottish charity No. SC009944. Registered Office: 14 Ashley Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5PX