Engage with Age’s PAL Project has been operating since 2018. EWA recently worked with SP Consulting in Antrim to evaluate the effectiveness of the PAL Project with a view to understanding the benefit of the programme and learning how to support lonely and isolated older people better.

“Finding Their Feet” is the name of the report produced. The report highlights the benefits of peer lead approaches where older people take the lead in formulating activities and running events. The resounding feedback from over 200 people consulted is that the PAL Project has positively improved their health.

One participant said: “What I use to do before was stay at home, looking out the window, doing nothing, staring at the walls, it was terrible, but now my life is really totally different.”

As well as the report, a number of training videos have been produced, featuring the words of volunteer group leaders and interviews with older people. Engage with Age will use these resources to help inform practice and improve future support within the sector.

The report is in the Links section of this website, and you can read the abridged report by clicking this weblink: https://engagewithage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Finding-Their-Feet-Abridged-Report.pdf

The four training videos are available to view on the following links:

PAL Project:  What is loneliness like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UdWxcdsPLc

PAL Project:  Working with loneliness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTxvLY7l0tw

PAL Project:  Getting the welcome right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6W7iSgVgLI

PAL Project:  Running groups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixo2aL0fL9A