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Snapshot impact evaluation

December 2015

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SOUTH LONDON CARES

Snapshot impact evaluation

December 2015

Contents

Section Page 1. Background and introduction 3 2. Evaluation approach 4 3. Outputs to date 5 4. SLC’s impact on older neighbours 6 5. SLC’s impact on volunteers 9 6. Conclusions 14

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1. Background and introduction

South London Cares (SLC) is a community network of young professionals and older neighbours hanging out and helping one another in a rapidly changing city – in order to reduce isolation and loneliness amongst older people (and young professionals alike); to improve the wellbeing, confidence, skills, resilience and connection of all participants; and to bridge social and generational divides in our capital city.

We do this because London is a place of social extremes. Globalisation, gentrification, migration, digitisation and the London housing bubble are trends which make London the dynamic place that it is, but those same trends also deepen the isolation that many people feel, by accelerating the pace of change and transforming communities which have provided so much security and familiarity for so many, for so long.

Clearly, older people who often have deep roots in their neighbourhoods but few connections, and young professionals with hundreds of connections but shallow roots, have so much to gain from one another – in shared time, laughter, new experiences and friendship.

Our work harnesses the assets of the local community, including businesses, local authorities, community organisations and individuals, to deliver three core projects:

• Social Clubs (group activities which occur 4-6 times per week and provide an anchor of interaction);

• Love Your Neighbour (one-to-one interactions, usually in people’s homes, that bring a little extra company and companionship);

• A Winter Wellbeing project that identifies isolation during the toughest time of year and connects older neighbours to our network and the rest of the community.

South London Cares operates in Southwark and Lambeth. It was launched in August 2014 and is the sister charity of North London Cares (which operates in Camden and Islington and was launched in 2011).

This is South London Cares’ first impact evaluation – and aims to provide a snapshot for our board, staff team, funders, partners and supporters of the work we’ve done so far about what it means to those involved, and to build the foundational base of statistical evidence to support the anecdotal evidence that South London Cares’ methods work – that they help older neighbours to feel more connected, better supported and more at ease in the modern world.

The field work and drafting of the report were carried out by experienced social researcher Chris Clarke, who consulted on the creation of appropriate questions, conducted the surveys with older neighbours and young professional volunteers, and completed the analysis and reporting. Field research took place in October 2015.

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2. Evaluation approach

For this snapshot evaluation we aimed to survey 20 older neighbours and 20 young professional volunteers. Ultimately, we exceeded our target for older neighbours but fell one short with young professionals. However, we still managed to get a balance, and a good sample and reflection of the people who make up South London Cares’ community network.

The young professionals, as a generally tech-savvy and proactive demographic, were surveyed electronically, completing surveys sent to them via email. Because of some of the features of working with older people it was important that there was genuine, non-electronic contact, so surveys of older neighbours were conducted in person.

The surveys were conducted as follows:

Date of fieldwork Number Method

Older neighbours Oct 27th-29th, 2015 21 Telephone interview

Young professionals

Oct 23rd-30th, 2015 19 Self-completion, electronic (via email)

All survey participants were selected to provide a balanced reflection of South London Cares’ outputs – so some people surveyed were involved in the Love Your Neighbour work, and some were regular attendees of social clubs. Others had only a short experience of South London Cares to date, as we wanted to know why some people had only participated once or twice, and therefore what we might be able to do to improve.

NB – For clarity, some figures in the prose of this report are quoted in percentages (%), although it should be noted that our survey sample size was very small, with just 40 people surveyed in total.

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3. Outputs to date

Over the 15 months since South London Cares opened, we have signed up over 700 volunteers through our website, of which 309 have participated so far. Those young professionals have spent time with 586 older neighbours in Southwark and Lambeth through our three projects. At the time of writing we had hosted a total of 230 social clubs and created 12,261 interactions across generational lines, and volunteers had added a total 2,888 hours to the community through that work.

From analysis of our work over three months, we know that our social clubs receive an average 237 attendances of older neighbours per month, from an average 134 individuals who join our clubs every month. A third of older neighbours (36%) attend at least two social clubs per month and 16% attend at least weekly.

Our Love Your Neighbour project is smaller, but continues to attract older neighbours and young professionals to regular and often even deeper, more meaningful interactions. At the time of the evaluation, 43 older neighbours and the same number of young professional volunteers were part of the Love Your Neighbour project, spending

time and company together, and sharing practical support and companionship often in neighbours’ homes.

In December 2015 we also began our second Winter Wellbeing project. The first project in winter 2014/15 reached out to 1,880 older neighbours, held face-to face conversations with 1,007, and provided “deeper interventions” (such as a gift of a blanket, jumper or scarf, referrals to local services, and grants for people most in need) to 147 older people who told us they were struggling from the cold.

“I must say this organisation has changed my life and has given me a purpose as I was in a very isolated place. Thanks for everything you do.” Jacquie, 67, Clapham

“Meeting you is giving me a new lease of life. The weekends are a lonesome time for me. I go up and down. When I’m with you all, I go up.” Richard, 81, Herne Hill

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4. SLC’s impact on older neighbours

For this evaluation, we spoke to 21 older neighbours. The overall tone was extremely positive in relation to SLC and the work the charity does to help people combat isolation, improve wellbeing and reduce social and generational divides. Older neighbours clearly valued the time they spend with their younger neighbours – and feel better connected and more in touch as a result of those interactions.

4.1 Profile of older neighbours

As might be expected, the gender balance was heavily weighted in favour of women (76%), with men making up less than a quarter of those we spoke to (24%). More than three quarters (76%) of all respondents lived alone and nearly half were in their seventies; two were in their nineties. The proportion of homeowners was surprisingly high at 52%, and may be explained by residents living in council properties they purchased as a result of the ‘Right to Buy’ policy beginning in the 1980s.

4.2 SLC interactions among older neighbours

As the charts on page 5 – and the outputs statistics above – show, the majority of respondents participated in South London Cares through social clubs rather than Love Your Neighbour, and most said they attended either weekly or monthly. For a great many neighbours participating (67%), SLC was their only form of social or community activity.

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4.3 SLC’s appeal and impact among older neighbours

The presence of young professionals is a central part of South London Cares’ approach, so it’s encouraging that 81% cite the company and companionship of young people as part of what they enjoy about South London Cares. As the adjacent chart shows, almost all the people surveyed cite activity, companionship and young people as a reason for being part of the community network. The overall impression is that respondents understood SLC’s unique concept, and were going out of their way to be part of the network.

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The survey also demonstrates that South London Cares has a strong impact on areas connected to the charity’s core objectives, with almost every participant saying they felt more in touch (90%), more at ease with modern life (90%), and more connected to young people (86%) as a result of their participation.

As the chart below shows, the impact on isolation was significant too, with 76% saying they are less isolated as a result of South London Cares’ work (incidentally the proportion of older neighbours feeling less isolated through North London Cares was remarkably similar, at 73%. 81% felt specifically “less lonely”.

On things like confidence (38%) the difference was less marked, although still significant. These figures also echo the results of SLC’s sister charity North London Cares, offering further evidence that the Cares Family’s methods are effective and consistent.

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5. SLC’s impact on volunteers

We spoke to 19 of South London Cares’ volunteers in total. The overall tone was, again, extremely positive – with the young professionals feeling as much that they benefit from their volunteering as the older people do. That’s important for SLC – as the model is designed to be a leveller, to remove barriers (including barriers in the community sector) that too often keep different social and generational demographics apart.

5.2 Profile of volunteers

As the charts below show, the SLC volunteers we spoke to tended to work in the public (42%) and community sectors (21%), and were overwhelmingly female (84%) rather than male (16%). These numbers may overstate the actual gender imbalance a little, and SLC have had men sign up in higher numbers since the completion of this survey, but it demonstrates the common trend in the community and charity sector. Most volunteers lived with flatmates (74%), and the lack of students demonstrated a mainly graduate demographic.

The really striking trend in the profile of SLC’s volunteers is the number of volunteers from outside the two boroughs (47%) – almost as many as live in Southwark and Lambeth combined (53%). This suggests people are commuting in specifically to volunteer, or that many volunteers are volunteering where they work, rather than where they live. One volunteer mentioned that they travel from Croydon. Either way this may imply that there is scope for rolling the charity out to neighbouring boroughs.

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5.3 Involvement and appeal of SLC among volunteers

As the charts below show, most people had originally heard about South London Cares through a friend (53%), with five also having heard about the charity through work (26%) (in particular through SLC’s corporate partners such as Octopus Investments).

Most volunteers participate weekly or monthly, and for a significant proportion (nearly a third) SLC was their only form of volunteering. This is important, suggesting SLC is successfully attracting people who often don’t participate in a great deal of other civic activities.

“The setup is excellent – it means you can volunteer in a flexible way. The charity is realistic about the restrictions of working life and accepting that sometimes you will be able to be more involved and less involved with volunteering. The events are well organised. The staff are always enthusiastic and encouraging. And of course first and foremost it's brilliant meeting and getting to know older neighbours, whether it's an informal natter about what they've been watching on the TV or learning about their colourful life experiences.” Andrew, volunteer

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As the charts below show, the motives people had for getting involved with SLC tended to be to do with the opportunity to connect with older people (84%) and the community (63%), and that this was something they seemed, by and large, to have achieved: 84% feel better connected to the community as a result of their interactions through South London Cares; while 79% said they feel more in touch with the wider world. Ease of getting involved was also central (58%). Interestingly, SLC’s work also improves the moods of 53% of the young volunteers who participate, indicating that there is also mutual benefit between young and older people when it comes to mental health.

Moreover, the sense of being in touch with real life – rather than just passing through it in a ‘young professional bubble’ – was integral to the SLC appeal, and was a chief thing people got out of sessions. Many of the responses given emphasised the reciprocal nature of volunteering for SLC.

“Through South London Cares I have made a friend

for life, and it no longer feels like volunteering, but just

visiting a friend. I think I get as much, if not more, out of

visiting my elderly neighbour, as I give.”

Charlotte, Lambeth

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5.4 Areas for improvement

Our young professional respondents were unanimous in saying they would recommend South London Cares to a friend, and were similarly unequivocal on the topic of whether they felt SLC communicated well with them (all 19 volunteers said this). The tenor of responses was extremely positive and there were a number of very strong testimonials. “All the staff are great,” said one. “Volunteering with SLC doesn’t feel like volunteering,” explained another.

A number of recommendations were put forward for how SLC might improve (below). Most were to do with offering more advanced notice for how people could get involved, along with some other low-level scheduling ideas. These should be considered over the coming months.

• “I think it's a good idea to send texts on events but maybe still send reminders by email a few days before, checking people can still commit.” Annette, Lambeth

• “It would be helpful to get the programme a little earlier; it’s sometimes a bit late for events in the early parts of the month.” Nick, Southwark

• “You could look to introduce bookings for sessions online, maybe also seeing which other volunteers (first name only) are attending, in order to develop volunteers’ connections. Perhaps the next month’s dates could come out sooner too, so people can plan their month. I rarely attend clubs in the first week of the month as already have plans by the time the email comes out.” Annette, Lambeth

• “When social clubs are full, it would be good if we could be offered a list of alternative clubs which still have spaces – perhaps Doodle polls could be used so that volunteers can see where there are still spaces (or not) when they are signing up for clubs?” Mary, Lambeth

“I love coming to SLC – I think it is a brilliant initiative and I have

already recommended it to friends who have since joined as volunteers. The flexibility is a huge attraction to me as I had previously been unable

to find volunteering opportunities which met my needs in terms of

flexibility with work commitments.” Mary, Lambeth

“The emails are just right in frequency and tone. They’re friendly and brief. I enjoy receiving them. I think it’s really nice that the organiser checks in before and after sessions – it makes you feel valued and part of a network. The socials are just about the right frequency too.” Lorna, Lambeth

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6. Conclusions In summary, this first snapshot impact evaluation has provided some excellent evidence that South London Cares’ methods work. Notably, many of the statistics are remarkably similar to those featured in the major impact evaluation conducted for North London Cares and published in 2014. This offers additional credibility to the Cares Family’s general evidence base. In the coming weeks and months, staff and the board at South London Cares will further analyse and consider these new data and in the context of funding, partnerships and our current priorities and commitments, discuss how we can further deliver on our goals. Specifically, we are keen to take this effective model to even more people in 2016 – mobilising even more young professionals and older neighbours to hang out and help one another next year with even more creative social clubs and many additional one-to-one friendships, as well of course as with our Winter Wellbeing project, which began again in December 2016. We are also keen to use this data and additional evidence from our forthcoming 2016 evaluation, conducted by social researchers Renaisi, to build an even stronger argument for major government, corporate and philanthropic investments in first and early secondary interventions to combat isolation and loneliness and improve wellbeing.

ENDS © South London Cares, December 2015