Through commonground, I led a team helping Age UK Hackney in designing, testing and delivering a peer-led support service for men over 50 in the borough. The project was funded by Nesta as a pilot for tackling social isolation among older people.

Our brief was to identify the needs and interests of marginalised community groups, where men were at risk of social isolation in later life and were difficult to engage. Our role was to come up with creative solutions through a series of co-design workshops and test them within live environments making best use of the resources available to Age UK Hackney. We also considered sustainable financial models that moved away from grant models of delivery.

Our approach to the project was to develop a Theory of Change that considered long term goals and the behaviours and actions needed to reach them. Our co-designed and collaborative approach involved clients, front-line staff and senior managers in the creative process.

The concept for the service was a network of peer-led social activity groups for men developed around their interests, such as learning how to use Skype, museum trips and cooking lessons. The groups were supported by a local community ambassador trained by Age UK Hackney, who provided access to resources, advice and peer-support on planning for later life. 

On top of the service development work we delivered branding, community development strategy and a service blueprint, which mapped out the service delivery model. Age UK Hackney ran two pilots with different user groups from the Turkish, Black-Caribbean and white British communities. Following the pilots, the service was integrated into Age UK Hackney's AgeWell programme.