IntroductionLoneliness is associated with adverse health outcomes, including cardiovascular diseases, depression, and premature mortality, and is unequally distributed according to social determinants. Prescribing individuals to community-based interventions in nature, often described as nature-based social prescribing (NBSP), has emerged as a promising intervention to address loneliness. This study aims to quantify the social return of investment (SROI) of the “Friends in Nature” (FiN) intervention designed to alleviate loneliness.MethodsFollowing key guidelines, we performed a SROI study for a NBSP intervention compared to usual care alongside the FiN trial conducted in Barcelona within the EU-H2020 RECETAS project. The SROI ratio, which measures the social value generated per monetary unit invested, and the net present value, which reflects the difference between social value and investment costs, were estimated.ResultsA social return of EUR 1.48 per EUR 1 invested in the NBSP intervention was generated. The net present value was EUR 8,585 per FiN and EUR 8,496 per UC participant. The SROI ratios remained positive and above one in most sensitivity and scenario analyses, ranging from EUR 0.83 to 13.18 per 1 EUR invested.DiscussionWe conducted a SROI analysis to quantify the broader benefits of investing in a NBSP intervention to reduce loneliness. This SROI ratio enables decision-makers to consider social value alongside financial value, thereby facilitating more comprehensive comparisons of public health investments.Clinical trial registrationTrial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT05488496. Registered 29 July 2022.

Context: Concerns about an ageing population with long-term care needs putting strain on health and social care systems have prompted interest in community care models for later life care, as already exist in palliative and end-of-life care. Objectives: To identify existing later life care and support within communities, willingness to participate in a community care model, and barriers and enablers to such a model. Methods: We adopted a qualitative approach, involving in-depth interviews and focus groups with 39 participants aged 70–91 years old. Data were transcribed, and a deductive thematic analysis conducted. Findings: Most participants were involved in help-giving within their local community, with friends, neighbours, and nearby residents. However, whilst participants were willing to receive home care from volunteers in the community, they considered it inappropriate for volunteers to provide personal care, and perceived considerable barriers to enacting a community care model. Limitations: This study does not aim to be representative of the population aged over 70 in England, and instead presents an in-depth exploration of the views and experiences of a small sample of this group. Implications: There is currently a broad but shallow reservoir of goodwill towards caring within the community. Later life community care relies heavily on a core of family and friends, and there will continue to be increasing demand for professional care services to fill the gaps where this core does not exist, and where medical and personal care needs exceed what can be supported by informal carers.

PURPOSE:Undertaking evaluations of public health interventions can be problematic, particularly where there are multiple stakeholders and high degrees of complexity. This is especially true with regards to the evaluation of community interventions that can include multiple actors with differing priorities, budgets and resources. Using the example of a place-based community wellbeing project, this paper discusses the practical application of 'Outcome Harvesting' as a methodology for retrospective, responsive and collaborative evaluation in public health research.RESULTS:Our example shows that Outcome Harvesting can be effectively applied to the evaluation of community development initiatives and is likely to have potential in evaluating public health interventions more generally. Our case study also found it was well suited to retrospective evaluation, although the earlier the work can begin the more beneficial it is in understanding the project and in gathering sufficient data.CONCLUSION:Outcome Harvesting shows promise for evaluating community development initiatives, allowing evaluators to work closely with key stakeholders to arrive at a mutually agreed and verifiable set of outcomes. However, challenges remain with regards to engaging a broad range of participants and with ensuring adequate time and resources are available to evaluate initiatives effectively.

Microgrant schemes are used in many contexts relevant to community development, but there are few detailed accounts of their operation and effects. This study explored a four-year microgrant scheme in Bristol, UK. The research analyzed 141 awards and collected qualitative and quantitative data on 233 individuals. The research found that the diversity of activities, local embeddedness, skills and capacity development, social connection and volunteering features of the scheme offered routes to community development goals. Microgrant schemes are likely to benefit from designated staff to conduct outreach work, facilitate stakeholder engagement, and provide ongoing support. Coordination with other community development activities enhanced the scheme’s impact while weaknesses in local infrastructure, caused by funding cuts, impeded delivery. Microgrant schemes should be understood as an intervention that complements and works alongside other community development activities. To enhance their role in community development, attention needs to be paid to scheme design, implementation and integration.

Background: Whilst qualitative research has previously been conducted on older people’s personal resilience and wellbeing during COVID-19, there are fewer empirical studies on the impact it had on social connectedness for this age group. In this paper we seek to examine older people’s social connectedness to others during the pandemic, their personal experiences of seeking out those connections, and whether there are any identifiable pre-existing factors that enabled them to minimise the impact of enforced isolation. Methods: Using a phenomenological methodology, we conducted in-depth interviews with 13 older people between March and May 2021. These interviews explored the participant’s lived experiences of staying socially connected to others during the enforced lockdowns and various restrictions. Results: Our findings reveal strong themes of personal resilience, sense of coherence and other protective factors, but also highlight the benefits of establishing connections to friends, family, organised groups and community prior to the pandemic. Conclusion: Older people’s ability to stay socially connected is influenced by personal resilience and a positive mindset; pre-existing social ties to others and maintaining a personal sense of coherence and a sense of belonging to people or places. Our findings shed light on the importance of informal social interactions, what it means to feel lonely in older age and indicate that for some the pandemic restrictions may even have offered a welcome space in which to process significant life events.

Purpose International attention is increasingly turning to the challenge of creating age-friendly environments. This study aims to examine the application of asset-based approaches in undertaking community development projects with older people. The paper intends to share the learning that may be useful when designing community development projects for older people in the future. Design/methodology/approach This study followed a multiple project case study design, with a focus on project delivery practices. It was undertaken as a co-production exercise involving university researchers and trained older volunteer community researchers (CRs). Over 18–24 months of qualitative research was conducted in relation to six area-based urban projects between 2018 and 2020. Findings There were five leading themes as follows: mapping and building on assets in highly localised settings; creating governance and direction through steering groups; developing activities with diverse groups of older people; reaching isolated and lonely older people; building local capacity to embed sustainability. Practical implications The effectiveness of assets-based approaches in promoting age-friendly agendas appears to be contingent on the values, skills, capacity and resourcing of delivery agencies, alongside wider public sector investment in communities. Diversity and inequalities amongst older people need to be taken into account and community development that specifically focuses on older people needs to be balanced with the whole population and intergenerational practice. Originality/value This paper provides an empirical account of the practical application of assets practices specifically in the context of the age-friendly community agenda. The co-production method brings together insights from academic and volunteer older CRs.

Bristol Ageing Better is a city-wide programme running between 2015-2022 aimed at reducing social isolation and loneliness amongst older people. The programme has run a wide range of initiatives to promote community involvement, participation in social activities and local decision-making, and personal support. Many participants in BAB projects agreed to provide questionnaire-based information about their personal circumstances over the course of their involvement. This report brings together the findings from this questionnaire-based data, with a focus on the main outcomes concerned with isolation, loneliness, health, wellbeing and social engagement.

The Bristol Ageing Better (BAB) programme began in 2015 during a time of significant demographic, social, economic, political and policy change. This report looks, not at the projects commissioned by BAB, but at the underlying context. Using research and policy reports, archive material, and interviews with people who played key roles in the BAB programme, it paints a picture of the factors at national and local level that influenced the outcomes. BAB began midway through a decade of austerity that cut funding to both statutory and voluntary services. This inevitably cast a shadow over the programme, but also opened up opportunities as organisations learnt to work in new and more collaborative ways.

This document is the final evaluation report for the Health Connect project, delivered as Bourton-on-the-Water’s contribution to the Strengthening Local Communities programme. It details the development of the project model and the delivery of key project activities with attention to the context, rationale, perceived benefits, challenges and learning. The final section summarises progress over the funded period and identifies the themes that distinguish the project.

Background: Evidence from a range of major public health incidents shows that neighbour-based action can have a critical role in emergency response, assistance and recovery. However, there is little research to date on neighbour-based action during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. This article reports on a survey of people engaged in supporting their neighbours in weeks three and four of the UK COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: Members of area-based and community of interest COVID-19 support groups in the Bristol conurbation were invited to complete an online survey. Of 1,255 people who clicked on the survey link, 862 responded; of these, 539 responses were eligible for analysis. Results: Respondents reported providing a wide range of support that went beyond health information, food and medical prescription assistance, to include raising morale through humour, creativity and acts of kindness and solidarity. A substantial proportion felt that they had become more involved in neighbourhood life following the lockdown and had an interest in becoming more involved in future. Neighbour support spanned all adult age groups, including older people categorised as being at-risk to the virus. With respect to most measures, there were no differences in the characteristics of support between respondents in areas of higher and lower deprivation. However, respondents from more deprived areas were more likely to state that they were involved in supporting certain vulnerable groups. Conclusions: As with previous research on major social upheavals, our findings suggest that responses to the viral pandemic and associated social restrictions may increase existing social and health inequalities, and further research should explore this issue in more depth.

This report sets out the final evaluation of the Strengthening Local Communities programme. It starts with an overview of the evaluation methods. The next sections cover a literature review of community development in theory, research and local context and a summary of the programme. The central part of the document provides the links through to separate evaluation reports on each of the locality projects. The final sections cover, the role of the Action Learning Sets, the allocation of time and activities, and wider aspects of the programme.

This document sets out the final evaluation of the Priors Park Project, delivered as part of Tewkesbury Borough Council’s contribution to the Strengthening Local Communities programme. It documents the development of the project model and the delivery of key project activities with attention to the context, rationale, perceived benefits, challenges and learning. The final section summarises progress up to the second year of the project and identifies themes that distinguish the project.