Ageing Equally Dispersed Communities is a research and delivery project that aims to increase the knowledge base about what the kind of support that older people from dispersed communities need to stay connected as they age.

Throughout the pandemic, organisations supporting minority communities, particularly BAME communities and disabled people, have been under great pressure. Now, recovery efforts are focusing on neighbourhood-level work, but this may not reach people in communities that are not geographically defined.

By “dispersed communities” we mean groups of people who share an identity or experience – for example, seeking asylum, being Deaf BSL users, having the same faith, or coming from the same ethnic minority community - who do not all live near each other in one neighbourhood. This means they have to travel away from their neighbourhood to be together, practice their faith, or get the support they need. You can read more about using a spatial approach to work with marginalised communities here.

The Ageing Equally Dispersed Communities research project will look at how organisations supporting these communities do so, and what challenges they face in reaching and connecting community members. We will produce a report in February 2022, to be launched in March 2022.

The organisations taking part in the research project have also received investments of up to £2,000 to run short projects for older people in their communities.

View the full list of organisations and their projects here.