Care-Connect secure £6m Big Lottery Funding

Care-Connect have been part of a Leeds wide partnership, led by Leeds Older People’s Forum (LOPF) which has been successful in securing £6million Big Lottery.

The funding has been utilised to help reduce isolation and loneliness among older people in the city.

Care-Connect provided research evidence to support the successful bid through an intern, three student placements, and through the expertise of Dr Andrea Wigfield, the Hub’s Director.

LOPF hopes to reach at least 15,000 older people through the project which it has named ‘Out of the Shadows: Time to Shine’ to “help move them out of the shadows cast by loneliness.”

It will work with Leeds Council, voluntary organisations and business partners to build on work that is already being done to focus on the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach people, and will put older people at the heart of managing and designing the work.

Care-Connect and the University of Leeds will continue to work with academics and researchers across the city to ensure that the programme is informed by cutting edge research, and international evidence of good practice in reducing social isolation and loneliness in later life.