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June 25, 2024

Greater than the sum of our parts….

Profile image for Jo Volpe

Chief Executive Officer, LOPF

In these weeks when there’s so much talk of a big change, perhaps we should look at the small…

It’s Small Charity Week and I wanted to shine a light on Leeds Older People’s Forum members.

Leeds Older People’s Forum is a membership organisation.  Our members are organisations who work with and for older people in Leeds. Many are small charities, yet together we make a big impact.  

Together we’re having an impact on the health and wellbeing of older people in Leeds.

  • Our Enhance Programme is supporting people either leaving hospital or at risk of being admitted to hospital. We’ve shown that our third sector partners are reducing both the probability of people being readmitted to hospital and the time older people they support are spending in hospital.
  • The Leeds Neighbourhood Networks evaluation shows community-based organisations  support healthy ageing and reduce the use of health resources.

Together we’re helping people get through the cost of living crisis.

  • Working alongside our Forum Central partner, Volition, we funded 99 organisations in Leeds to reach 9,799 households with food and fuel using Household Support Funding.
  • We’re training our wider workforce on pension credit eligibility to increase the number of people accessing this benefit

Together we’re working to get more older people feeling safe on-line with our BOSS programme, and once on-line using it to be more financially secure.

And together we’re going to keep trying to achieve an age friendly transport system!

That’s why LOPF is greater than the sum of its parts. We couldn’t achieve the impact we have on the lives of older people in Leeds if it wasn’t for the passion, dedication and professionalism of our small charity members.

A stronger third sector helps prevent people from living in poor health as they age. So those small charity members need sustained and secure funding: just one of the recommendations we’re calling for in our Manifesto for Change.  Please pledge your support by retweeting this blog with a ‘YES’ comment.

Together we can influence and bring about change, however small we may be when alone.

Jo Volpe
Chief Executive, LOPF

#ManifestoForChange
#SMALLCHARITYWEEK