With Glasgow’s Golden Generation announced as our 2021 charitable partner, we asked Senior Communications Manager Lynsey Neilson to answer a couple of questions to help us learn more before we kick off our summer fundraising and awareness campaign.
What services does Glasgow's Golden Generation offer to support older isolated adults in Glasgow?
Glasgow’s Golden Generation offers four core services to older adults; befriending, weekly clubs, 3 day care centres and benefits advice. During the Covid-19 crisis these services have changed to better meet the needs of older adults and social distancing guidelines. The befriending service now offers telephone and video befriending support which is in high demand. The day centres are delivering parcels of essential items such as tins, bread, milk and cleaning products to the doors of older adults who are unable to access these products themselves. The weekly clubs are being supported by telephone to ensure that members still know where to turn to for help when they can’t meet. Finally, our Welfare Officers continue to provide benefits advice and help with form filling, however this is done by phone at the moment.
The Fred Paton Day Centre, Glasgow
What is the most rewarding part of the work you do?
Everyone in the charity would answer this in a different way! For me, the feedback we get from older adults can be really moving. At the beginning of the Covid Crisis we were getting phone calls from people who were desperate and didn’t know where they were going to get basic essentials from. We were able to quickly respond to these calls and get food and supplies to people who needed them. This made a massive difference to older adults who were isolated or shielding who didn’t know how they would access basic supplies.
Our recent survey showed that our service users are more concerned about being lonely and isolated than coronavirus itself – I was really surprised but this and it really put things into perspective for me. Our befrienders make such a huge difference to older adults’ lives – often the phone call from a befriender is the highlight of their day and may be the only person they’ve spoken to that week. What we do is so important.
How can people get involved in the work the charity does?
Glasgow’s Golden Generation wouldn’t be able to support older adults in Glasgow without the support of its army of volunteers. At the moment the charity is particularly interested in hearing from anyone who would like to sign up as a volunteer befriender. You can find out more by emailing our Volunteer Engagement Manager, Karen.Moyes@glasgowgg.org.uk who will be happy to tell you more about the service and how you can get involved.
How can GUCFS help Glasgow’s Golden Generation achieve their purpose? (financially or otherwise)
We already have our first GUCFS volunteer signed up and we’re really excited to kick off this partnership! For us, support through volunteering is fantastic and makes a huge difference to our service users. We have lots of exciting projects at the moment so we’re keen for GUCFS to get as involved with these as they can! Of course fundraising is really important for us – this is a really tough time for charities so fundraising helps us to keep supporting older adults who need our help.
GUCFS 2021are dedicated to working with this vital local charity to combat isolation in older adults in Glasgow.
Keep an eye on our social media for our summer fundraising and awareness campaigns!