Community First Yorkshire launches unique loneliness risk test in North Yorkshire
Loneliness affects many thousands of people in all our different communities across North Yorkshire. Addressing loneliness is never easy and there’s no one solution, but Community First Yorkshire is working on ways to tackle the issue countywide.
‘Staying Social, Staying Well’ is a fun, free and practical online quiz. It helps people approaching retirement in the next few years, or who have recently retired, (typically aged 50-65) think about their risk of loneliness in later life. The quiz offers practical ideas about how you can stay connected with the people around you, get involved in your community, keep active, keep learning and give back.
Loneliness is not inevitable. It isn’t the same as being alone. Feeling lonely from time to time is a normal human emotion. However when loneliness isn’t an option, but an ongoing, day to day reality those affected are likely to suffer significant ill health and other negative consequences. Circumstances may mean that your risk level is higher. Knowing your risk level helps you think and plan, enabling you to take small steps towards managing your future mental and physical well-being.
More and more of us are living alone, and many of us enjoy our solitude. However, there is a potential increase to our risk of being lonely and isolated. Estimates are that, by 2035, 50% of women aged over 75 and 29% of men over 75 will live alone.
The Staying Social, Staying Well quiz asks 12 questions and will take you about 10 minutes to complete. It’s designed to be used on a smart phone, tablet or laptop and you don’t have to ask the grandkids how to use it. It is simple and easy to use.
Leah Swain, Chief Executive at Community First Yorkshire, said: “We don’t know of any other quiz like this, so it’s certainly a first for North Yorkshire. It’s free, it’s fun and it’s informative.
“Many of us will have financial plans for retirement, but how many of us have considered our future social health? ‘Social’ pension planning can help people think about how they maintain and develop new contacts and networks after paid-work.
“Meeting people through volunteering, learning or other activities can play a vital part in securing our mental and emotional resilience as we grow older.”
We want to use the quiz to make sure ideas and support to help tackle loneliness are reaching as many people across North Yorkshire as possible.
ENDS
Contact
Jo Fox, Marketing Communications Officer at Community First Yorkshire t: 01904 704177
e: jo.fox@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk
Notes to Editors
About The Loneliness Campaign North Yorkshire
Community First Yorkshire secured £99,555 from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Building Connections Fund, which it will use to help support and inspire more local action to ‘turbo-charge’ the county’s response to tackling loneliness.
People, of all ages and from all walks of life in North Yorkshire experience loneliness. The project aims to ‘connect’ people to the many activities provided by voluntary and community organisations and help people make new friends.
The funding comes from Her Majesty’s Government and National Lottery players, through a competitive bidding process at the end of 2018.
About Community First Yorkshire
Community First Yorkshire is an influential, regional body that works with voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises and rural communities across North, South and West Yorkshire.
We are an independent charity and membership body formed from a merger between Rural Action Yorkshire and the North Yorkshire and York Forum in 2017. We are also a rural community council, part of the national ACRE Network (Action with Communities in Rural England) helping communities improve the quality of life for all people living and working in rural Yorkshire.
We are one of 37 Rural Community Councils, with funding from Defra, to provide an important rural advocacy and influencing role, enabling and empowering communities to develop the confidence to help themselves and ensure their needs are heard by policy makers and service providers, on a local, regional and national scale.
We are the first port of call for voluntary organisations, social enterprises and parish councils looking for practical support. We can help with everything from governance and funding, to strategic planning and community engagement through our training and events, resources and networks.
t: 01904 704 177 e: info@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk Twitter: @CommFirstYorks Facebook: Community First Yorkshire
About Building Connections Fund
The Building Connections Fund is the first ever Government fund dedicated to reducing loneliness in England and will target people from all age groups and backgrounds. The £11.5 million national Building Connections Fund is a partnership between government, Big Lottery Fund and the Co-op Foundation, which was set up in response to the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness to support projects that prevent or reduce loneliness.
Its focus is largely on funding existing projects that are already helping to build connections to prevent and/or reduce loneliness and it aims to:
- increase social connections, helping people form strong and meaningful relationships and creating a sense of community and belonging, and helping people feel more connected
- support organisations to build on their existing work, for example, by reaching more people, or working in a new area or with a different method or group of people
- encourage organisations to join up with others locally
- improve the evidence base and use learning to inform longer term policy and funding decisions
Read the full Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport launch press release here.
For further information about the Fund contact the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport press office: 0207 211 2210