Project Puts Elderly First (Leeds Liberal Democrats)

Leeds Liberal Democrats <info@leedslibdems.org.uk>

Project Puts Elderly First

April 26, 2005 9:42 PM

Councillor Kabeer Hussain has hailed the work of a pioneering health and social care project for the elderly after attending a showcase event in the city's Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward. The SEEM II Project is a multinational initiative that seeks to promote solutions to improve health and social care service delivery for black and ethnic minority elders (BME).

The project which has partners as far a field as Lille (France), Gothenburg (Sweden), Dortmund (Germany) and Ghent (Belgium) has Leeds City Council as its lead organisation. Delegations from the partner cities attended the event held last week (Tuesday, 19th April 2005) at the Woodsley Road Community Centre. Councillor Kabeer Hussain (Hyde Park & Woodhouse) said "The SEEM II Project has worked hard to give a voice to those most vulnerable in our society. Any initiative that encourages relationships to be forged amongst our diverse communities for the greater good can only be a positive thing."

Leeds City Council is the lead organisation of SEEM II, a European project which is running from 31st December 2003 to 31st December 2005. It builds on work done under SEEM I, a smaller one-year project which run from 31st December 2002 to 31st December 2003. The aim of SEEM is to improve services for elders from ethnic minorities. European Partners 11 official partners are involved in the second phase of the SEEM project.

These are 5 local authorities: Leeds City Council (lead organisation) (UK); Stadt Dortmund (DE); SDF Gunnared (SE) the Ville de Lille (FR) and the Province of East-Flanders. The other 6 partners are an academic institution, the Forschungsgesellschaft für Gerontologie e.V. (Dortmund, DE) and five non-governmental organisations. These voluntary organisations are the Verein für Internationale Freundschaften e.V. (Dortmund, DE), Leeds Olders People's Forum (Leeds, UK), Leeds Black Elders Association (UK), the Geron Foundation (Bucharest, RO) and Matca 2000 (Bucharest, RO).

New to the second phase of the project are the following 4 partners: Leeds Black Elders Association (UK), Matca 2000 Foundation (RO), Geron Foundation (RO), and the Province of East-Flanders (BE). The external evaluation of the project is undertaken by the Policy Research Institute for Ageing and Ethnicity, PRIAE (Leeds and London, UK). Current developments In the first year of SEEM II, the partnership has already raised awareness of the particular situation of BME elders and has promoted the project at a local, national and at a European level. This included flyers sent out across the Member States and the Candidate country Romania; presentations and newspaper articles. Seem II Project achievements in Leeds:

Funding obtained for a BME Elders Support Worker · Establishment of a BME Elders Reference - now - Action Group to discuss issues for BME elders in Leeds.

4 large events in the last 18 months to share information and celebrate the work of BME elders organisations in the city.

Increased communication between BME elders organisations - eg Leeds Jewish Welfare Board assisting Sikh Leaders with first stages of developing sheltered/supported housing for Sikh elders

Joint work with West Yorkshire Playhouse, to include more BME elders in arts and cultural activities at the Playhouse

Establishment of a dementia café for BME elders.