GrumbleSmiles

FIFTH MEETING – BELGRADE THEATRE FRIDAY 26th JULY 2013

The fifth meeting of the Garden Project Group met in the Belgrade Theatre on Friday 26th July 2013 and agreed that they will now morph into a new group which we have decided to call The Belgrade Group which will work on taking the project to the next stage.

Since the last meeting, John Archer from the Styvechale Grange Residents’ Association, had begun to make progress on how we might set up a CAFE Group in his area.  He has made contact with a local councillor and between them they would hope to approach the primary school to act as a host for CAFE events.  This is unlikely to be resolved before September but in the meantime John will continue to see what more he can find out about older peoples’ needs in his area.   Frances Fielding had made similar approaches in the Cheylesmore area and identified two possible locations for meetings – The Community Centre and the Baptist Church Hall.  She had also identified that there are approximately 4,000 people in Cheylesmore aged between 60 and 90.  So again this is a possible area for a CAFE pilot group.  Sherril Donaldson who attended the meeting for the first time and said there may be a possibility of forming an African Caribbean group in the Hillfields area of Coventry.

For the rest of the meeting John Graham outlined the aims and approach of the project beyond this point subject to being able to raise sufficient charitable funds to support our ambitions.  Our overall aim is to reduce loneliness and social isolation among older people in Coventry.  Our target is to be in touch with 5,000 older people within three years and to facilitate this process by the use of touch screen computer technology.  We do not intend to launch a major digital inclusion programme, rather we aim to find and train some “proxy champions” of computer technology in each CAFE Group.  We have identified around 10 potential CAFE Groups so far who we would hope in the longer term to each be in touch with around 500 older people.

The first step in our project has already been completed by the publication on the GrumbleSmiles Blog of the survey results of the initial group.  Whilst not representative of all older people in Coventry, the group gave us some clear pointers where more information and greater contact might address some of the unfulfilled needs which lead to isolation and loneliness.  The second step during the autumn will be to gather together a Digital Champion Research Team who will be attached to the Age Resource Centre and operate from a base in the University.  Their initial research will be to trawl the internet and find Applications and Information, particularly on YouTube videos which can provide a menu for support to the CAFE Group Members.  It is hoped that the Digital Champion Research Team will be assisted by students from the University.   GrumbleSmiles Trust will launch a competition within the University to find innovative projects which enhance the menu of Touch Screen Computer Apps that we intend to introduce as part of our CAFE group facilitation process.  Some of these Apps are likely to already be available on the internet, others may be created with the support of older people in Coventry.  We want our approach to be innovative, unique and fun to add “pixie dust” to our proposals.

We hope to identify the CAFE Groups during the autumn and launch in early 2014 with a set up grant from the GrumbleSmiles Trust.  The grant will be designed to fund venues, new computers and survey / video technology where necessary.  Key people from each of the CAFE Groups will meet with the project team every month to share experience and monitor progress.

The GrumbleSmiles Project Team will comprise a part-time Research Director and Assistant Researcher from the University as well as a part-time Executive Director of the GrumbleSmiles project.  It is hoped that they can be funded from a charitable appeal which will be launched during the autumn, this will be managed by the University Fundraising Team.

THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY AT THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER AND FINAL DETAILS WILL BE EMAILED TO PEOPLE NEARER THE TIME.    THEY HAVE WI-FI AND IT WOULD BE USEFUL IF YOU CAN BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP OR TABLET.

Any progress that the participants can make in identifying useful applications during the summer, would give us a flying start to our autumn research.  Some examples of YouTube videos which are of interest are noted below.  You can find them by searching YouTube under the heading of “Happiness and Older People”:-

• Laura Carstenson – “Older People are Happier” (11 minutes, 39 seconds)
• Michael Norton – “How to buy Happiness” (10 minutes, 59 seconds)
• A J Jacobs – “How Healthy living nearly killed me” (8 minutes, 43 seconds)
• Jane Fonda – “Life’s Third Act” (11 minutes, 21 seconds)

ALL THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROJECT ARE INVITED TO POST THEIR COMMENTS AND IDEAS BELOW.  OTHER READERS ARE WELCOME TO ADD THEIR VIEWS.

The CAFE Garden Project is the first issue which the CAFE Group is going to work on following the three group meetings that were held at the Welcome Centre in Coventry.  The project has been selected because it was the activity which most people in the initial group had an interest in.

Our first step is to further research the scope of the project by working with a group of “Age Friendly Experts” to identify what opportunities are available in Coventry related to gardens and gardening.   It is anticipated that most of this research will be a desktop study and the research group will meet weekly to discuss the progress they are making.

Vernon Taylor, a GrumbleSmiles Trustee, has secured the support of “Florence” who is a former BBC Gardeners’ World Producer and with her help our intention is to produce a short YouTube video as a demonstration how we can better inform and connect older people in Coventry.   We will then move on to other subjects.

This page of the blog will be used to report on the project’s progress and to notify people of the venue and date of future meetings.

FIRST MEETING – RYTON GARDENS FRIDAY 28th JUNE 2013

Because of the location outside of Coventry we only had a small number of  “expert researchers”.   They were all keen gardeners and  their enthusiasm moved us forward.    They have gone away to begin researching — gardens to visit / garden centres and gardening clubs and societies.   A few more participants would be helpful and anyone is welcome to come along.

SECOND MEETING – BELGRADE THEATRE FRIDAY 5th JULY 2013

The venue turned out to be a very good one.  The café itself had a few customers but we were able to sit in the theatre lobby immediately outside the café which was quieter and enabled us to talk comfortably amongst ourselves.  Again on a small number of people attended but that enabled us to have a very good quality discussion.

We first of all reviewed the research that Frances and Maureen had completed in the previous week.  The details of which are in the comments below this blog.  Whilst the information available from websites was useful, it didn’t give us sufficient knowledge to identify why they would be particularly good places to visit.  More work would be needed to establish the particular “Age Friendly” aspects of locations and some photos would be required to avoid people being disappointed if they made the effort to visit.  We still intend to pursue the Garden Project as a demonstration of how we can improve the quality of Age Friendly information in Coventry.

We then switched our discussion to considering why more people aren’t attending and felt that one reason was a lack of understanding of what we are trying to achieve.  It was also felt that the narrow single subject of gardening and the uncertainty of what is involved in making a YouTube video might also be putting people off.

We also had received a useful communication from John Archer who had attended the Ryton meeting but subsequently felt that the direction we were heading would not necessarily have relevance to the majority of socially isolated older people.  John is the Chairman of Styvechale Residents’ Association and the group felt there might be potential in working with John to address the issues in a more defined geographical area.  John Graham agreed to contact John Archer and discuss this idea further.

The group agreed in the week ahead to research what videos are available on YouTube that relate to gardening and might give an idea of the kind of information we need to gather.

Subsequent to the meeting I decided to visit the Central Library to see if they could assist us in any way, particularly in relation to meeting venue and facilities.  In terms of computer support, the library service has free computers available in libraries around the city for signed up members.  The Central Library is the largest and has 46 computer stations – most of which are used by students during the day, but they can be booked by anyone.  At the time I visited, there were 10 stations which were blocked booked by a group and no doubt this could be done by GrumbleSmiles.  The library service is also starting a one-one computer learning course referred to as GEN2GEN which links younger people with older people.  This could be a useful link to anyone who wants to enhance their computer skills.

I then visited BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio.  They have a suite of 12 computers in their reception area and they run a number of computer courses.  There is a specific course called “First Click” which they have been trying to get started without success. It’s run by two retired teachers and is free and flexible in terms of what support it provides.  They have been struggling to find participants and it sounds an ideal resource for the GrumbleSmiles project.  I will follow this up with course tutors and report back.

THIRD MEETING – BELGRADE THEATRE FRIDAY 12th JULY 2013

At the next meeting two new people joined us who had previously been at the Welcome Centre Surveys.  We were also joined by Christine Broughan of the Age Research Centre.  We spent the early part of the meeting finding out about peoples’ backgrounds and getting to know each other better.  We talked briefly about the garden project but at this point it doesn’t seem there is sufficient interest from enough people to move the project forward.  It was decided that we needed to be clearer about where we were heading overall before we could continue with the project as a demonstration.   It may also be better to directly approach some of the existing Garden Societies in Coventry.

John confirmed that in the afternoon he was due to see John Archer, the Chairman of the Styvechale Residents Association, and would invite him to the next meeting if there was a possibility of working with them.  John also agreed to contact the BBC CWR Team who are running the “First Click” project to see if there is any overlapping area of interest with us.

FOURTH MEETING – BELGRADE THEATRE FRIDAY 19th JULY 2013

This time the group included a number of new people including John Archer from the Styvechale Grange Residents Association and Alex and Yvonne Robinson.  Laura Cole came along from Coventry University.  Most of the conversation focused on why more people weren’t coming along to the meetings.  The first issue was felt to be the “garden project” which was not of interest to the majority of people, even though they have an interest in gardening.  The second barrier was thought to be “fear of computers” in spite of the fact that 80% of our  original group had computers.  Another issue was felt to be the lack of a “free lunch” which was felt to be a useful draw for some of the previous attendees.  Finally, it was acknowledged that many of the attendees were not themselves socially isolated and already had a network of friends and activities – therefore they may have little to gain from involvement in the project.

The discussion then turned to John Archer’s interest in tackling social isolation in Styvechale Grange.  The area is tightly geographically defined and has 1700 houses but no community facilities except for schools.  From John’s research it was felt that there were about 50% of the population aged over 50.  It was also thought that 83 people categorised themselves in poor health.  John intends to do further research to see if he can identify the number of older people in contact with Social Services and the number who are digitally connected with Broadband.  John has already tried to recruit volunteers to make regular telephone contact with lonely older people on the estate but no-one came forward to help.  John has gone away to consider whether there is potential for a GrumbleSmiles CAFE group on the estate.  Another possibility is a joint project with Bob Fryer who is the Chair of a Residents’ Association in Finham.

Frances Fielding also went away to consider whether there was a possibility of establishing a project in Cheylesmore.

Alex and Yvonne Robinson have a background in computers and adult education and have been successfully running computer training courses, mainly for older people, in Coventry for a number of years.  They came along to find out more about the GrumbleSmiles project and have agreed to stay involved to help the project evolve.

THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE AT THE CAFE IN THE BELGRADE THEATRE AT 10.30 AM ON FRIDAY 26TH JULY.    THEY HAVE WI-FI IF YOU WANT TO BRING A COMPUTER.

ALL THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROJECT ARE INVITED TO POST THEIR COMMENTS AND IDEAS BELOW.  OTHER READERS ARE WELCOME TO ADD THEIR VIEWS.