Back Ground Paper to Recruitment in September 2011

Back Ground Paper to Recruitment in October2012

Opening Doors London: Supporting older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People

1 Introduction

Opening Doors project began in 2005 with a group of gay and bisexual men meeting in one of Age UK Camden’s centre’s with the support of a part time project worker. In 2008 Age UK Camden was successful in building a partnership with 4 other Age UK’s in central London and employed two full time development co-ordinators to develop social and support opportunities for older LGBT people with funding from Reaching Communities, Big Lottery Fund.

The project has gone from strength to strength. The project supports over 600 people in and around London. We run a number of social groups, computer training, community safety sessions as well as two big information/consultation events a year and support our members to join in London PRIDE. We are funded by 4 big trusts.

Our team consists of: 1 half-time manager, 1 full-time development co-ordinator (male), 2 half-time development co-ordinators (female), 1 half time befriending co-ordinator.

2 Role of the Befriending Project Co-ordinator

The Befriending project has 9 befriending partnerships and 25 volunteers on the books trained and ready to go and 2 volunteers in the pipeline, and 6 clients on the waiting list on May 14.

The project has recently updated its policies and procedures. Volunteers are supported through the initial match and then invited to quarterly support meetings.

The project is funded by the Reaching Communities grant to match at least 10 clients and volunteers a year, and keeping a minimum of 30 partnerships from September 2014 onwards.

The project has identified need to support some people through telephone support and the befriending scheme co-ordinator will be responsible for developing this work.

The project has identified the fact that some members need support to attend the groups. Some people face physical barriers, and they might need someone to go with them as an escort, for others it is the emotional barrier of joining a new group. The befriending project co-ordinator will be responsible for liaising with the development co-ordinators to set up a new ‘buddying system’ to support people to attend the groups.

The project works across North London ie north of the river Thames, which covers some 22 boroughs. It also works across the LGBT community. The Opening Doors staff group works closely as a team to make sure that the project is as inclusive and enabling as possible.

3 Further Information

Please refer to Age UK Camden’s website: Opening Doors London website: