What works, for who, and why: Preventing loneliness in Bristol

Bristol Ageing Better (BAB) and University of the West of England (UWE) are proud to present a series of online events sharing findings from the evaluation of the BAB programme (2015-2020).

BAB is a National Lottery Community Funded programme, hosted by Age UK Bristol, which has distributed 5.9 million across Bristol to help tackle loneliness and social isolation experienced by people over 50. There has been a huge range of projects funded from boat building to shared reading, from social prescribing to talking therapy.

During this time, the projects BAB has funded have undergone research and evaluation to find out what works in preventing loneliness. UWE have supported BAB in breaking down what works, for who and why, and we are now ready to start sharing the result of the programme in a series of online events taking place:

8^th October - Addressing loneliness and isolation amongst older people in Bristol

15^th October - Older people as active citizens: changing the way Bristol works

22^nd October - Age-friendly places: building upon and nurturing community assets

These events are an opportunity to learn from a comprehensive evaluation and to build on thiswhen planning for a ‘new normal’ in the aftermath of the global pandemic.

Kay Libby, Chief Executive of Age UK Bristol said, “BAB has a very special place at Age UK Bristol and we are proud of its achievements.  Older people have been at the heart of the design, delivery and monitoring of the programme at every stage. We hope that the valuable learning coming out of the programme will inform other initiatives across the city and more widely.  As we feel the impact of the pandemic, it is increasingly important that we refocus our efforts to collaborate in reducing loneliness and social isolation experienced by people over 50.”

Carol Watson, of the BAB Strategic Programme Group said, “The outcomes and learning from BAB could not be more topical, given the recent experience of support from and for older people during the pandemic. The learning links well with a number of areas of innovation across community, social and health provision. As a city, we should be proud of this work, from the way the BAB programme itself has operated with older people in the driving seat, to the successful outcomes and the attention to learning from any projects that didn’t work as well.”

The events are all taking place online and are free to attend. To book your place please visit the BAB Website.