A Good Life

A Good Life helping end loneliness in later life

Canford Cliffs is seen as great place to live, where people enjoy a good quality of life. It may surprise many that this area was identified in a recent study as having one of the highest levels of loneliness amongst older people living in Poole.

While, there are several active community groups such as your Residents’ Association that provide valuable links for their members to news and activities in their local area, there is always more that can be done.

To this end, the Borough of Poole with the full support Councillors Haines and Iyengar, submitted a bid to the National Lottery to secure funding to provide the resource to carry out further works. I am very pleased to say that we were successful and won £187,000 to take this important work to the next stage. The local charity, Community Action Network, who head up this initiative have the following to say: win funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, to deliver a programme called ‘A Good Life’ – aiming to help end loneliness in later life initially in Canford Cliffs and Alderney.

Everyone approaches ageing with different attitudes, feelings and health. We like to think that you’re never old until you stop finding joy in life, so perhaps finding and experiencing joy is what makes us feel alive. We’ll be working with local communities, businesses and voluntary organisations already doing great work to combat loneliness, plus recruiting a new group of volunteers, or ‘Community Connectors’ as we’re calling them, to bring some joy and fun to the lives of older people who might like to connect more but don’t know where to start, or don’t think there’s anything they would enjoy. It’s important for us to work with the local community and be steered by their knowledge and insight, so we’d really like to hear

“Loneliness in later life is an issue for Canford Cliffs” says local charity Community Action Network (CAN)

Loneliness can be experienced throughout life, but it can be harder in later life. Local charity - Community Action Network (CAN) are trying to do something about that. They told us “We worked with local partners including Faithworks Wessex, Prama Life, Public Health Dorset, BCP Council, and Bournemouth University to

from you if you’d like to share your views and/or become more involved. Please contact Peter Bungay – Programme Coordinator on 01202 466130 or email him on peter.bungay@can100.org”

Please do get in touch. Any input will be most welcome. Remember, if you notice changes in your neighbours, such as a less tidy garden or becoming withdrawn for no apparent reason, knock on their door and ask. They could be the lonely neighbour next door.

Councillor May Haines