A time to live - Covid Reset and Beyond

Age UK Northumberland wins funding to help over 50s living in Northumberland prepare for a Covid Reset

Age UK Northumberland is delighted to announce a new project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund that will help the charity provide a range of advice, support, activities, exercises, friendship and bereavement support to help people older people in Northumberland begin the reset process and prepare to get back to a ‘new normal’ way of life.

The 12-month project, “A time to live – Covid reset and beyond”, focusses on the provision of advice and support to help navigate people safely and supportively back into ‘normal’ life through a program of exercise classes, activities, befriending services and practical and bereavement support.

Amy Whyte, Head of Charitable Services for Age UK Northumberland said:

“Everyone has suffered as a result of the pandemic, but our older generation have been more likely to shield for a prolonged period of time and as a result we are seeing extreme physical de-conditioning, loss of confidence, increased frailty and high levels of anxiety about returning to normal.  The funding provided by The National Lottery Community Fund will enable us to work alongside community groups, Parish Councils, charities and health providers in order to reach out and support people in the next phase of our journey out of the pandemic”.

Since 23 March 2020, Age UK Northumberland has provided:

• Information, support and advocacy to 1,142 people
• Helped people access over £1 million of benefits support
• Supported 124 clients with non-statutory advocacy
• 5,006 Friendship calls
• 6,878 calls welfare calls
• Delivered 2,436 home cooked meals
• Distributed 2,800 isolation packs kindly donated by local celebrity Vicky Pattison with the help of partner organisations and community groups
• Delivered 437 essentials food parcels
• Delivered 264 craft boxes
• Delivered 7,000 activity packs
• Produced on-line exercise classes for all abilities
• Teamed up with Koast Radio to air 4 weekly shows
• Recruited 41 new volunteers who are fully DBS checked and trained to support with craft and food packs / friendship calls / exercise classes (to add to our original 130)

Amy said “As a result of this work we have gained a great deal of insight into the needs of our older community and have continued to develop work in partnership with many community groups and organisations across the county.

“A time to live - Covid reset and beyond” is all about building on the support and services that we have developed during the first 12 months of Covid-19, learning from our work and our audience and working to motivate, help, build and prepare people for a time when they feel they can venture out safely and confidently and can start to live again.”