Background

Rotherfield St Martin is a community organisation offering a wide range of services for older people in the Rotherfield area. In 2007 the organisation secured a £70,000.00 three year grant from the Big Lottery allowing it to pay for the services of a coordinator. This has proved to be a successful move and the organisation, which started four-and-a-half years ago with just five people, today has 250 members and 100 volunteers. This has allowed the organisation to offer increased services which include, inter alia, computer lessons, arts projects, gym visits, a visiting service, volunteer driver service and bereavement counselling as well as different therapies.

Rottherfield is a village in rural East Sussex. In 2007 there were 868 people aged 65+ in the Rotherfield surgery practice and an additional 1000+ in the parish itself. Rotherfield’s older population suffers from the same issues as elsewhere in the country, an ageing population and poor communications making this particular organisation very important to the community. It is a successful model of Third Sector provision and one that may be transferrable to other rural areas in the country.

Project Outline

With their Big Lottery funding drawing to a close, the organisation was keen to search out other funding streams. In order to do this they needed to present independent research showing their value to the community and requested that CUPP facilitate a small-scale piece of research among the volunteers and users as well as an organisational analysis. This was hoped to not only help with funding but also provide a model of sustainability that could be transferable to other communities.

CUPP project selection criteria:

1.The project can be seen within the wider research undertaken by the University into older people’s wellbeing as well a provide the start of a larger national project of transferability

2.Studies of older people, particularly in rural England, are contained within a number of the School of Applied Social Science degrees

3.Rural areas in East Sussex face particular types of disadvantage, maybe not financial but in terms of isolation. A National Opinion Poll found that one in five people are alone for more than 12 hours per day (Age Concern, 2005). Such isolation has a negative impact on older people, especially those whose social life has diminished along with their physical abilities and is a major cause of depression

4.The organisations is able to harness social capital within a network that helps create social cohesion As Putman argues “social capital” calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful when embedded in a sense network of reciprocal social relations. (Putnam 2000: 19).

5.The research will help this group apply for social services funding to maintain and expand their work. As a transferable model it has the potential to serve other rural areas of the UK with a sustainable model of care in the community.

6.Dissemination of the results from the research will be carried out in Rotherfield. A recent conference attracted a wide variety of attendees; the local people as well as other professionals, medial and social services, who expressed an interest in the organisation. It is anticipated that a similar event could take place at the end of the research

Project Partners

•Rotherfield St Martin

•University Centre Hastings