Rural Research - Added Rural Value

In 2005 Age Concern Devon was commissioned by Change Up to undertake a research project on quality of life issues for older people in 4 rural parishes in Devon: Feniton, South Brent, Uffculme and Witheridge.

We secured the active participation of the parish councils, local voluntary/community groups and service users and hard to reach to gain a comprehensive perspective within each parish.

Our resultant report produced an important insight into the way services and leisure activities for older people are provided in the 4 rural parishes. It also highlighted the extent to which the current activities meet the expressed needs and interests.

We have used these results to make an application to The Big Lottery to expand this project to 100 rural parishes in Devon and to build the capacity of the voluntary/community groups to enable them to meet unmet needs.