Lottery grants awarded to help East Lancashire's older population (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Lottery grants awarded to help East Lancashire's older population

1:00pm Saturday 15th September 2012 in News

PROJECTS to help some of Lancashire's most marginalised older people have been awarded lottery grants totalling more than £620,000.

Eastern Lives, run by Age UK Lancashire, has already made a difference to the lives of hundreds of Asian pensioners living in Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale.

And with a £293,000 handout from the Big Lottery's Reaching Communities programme it can continue for another three years.

Marketing officer Sian Lambert said: "Historically the Asian heritage community do not access the sort of services we provide.

"Eastern Lives is about improving health outcomes among older people in the Asian community and it has been really successful."

Workshops have focused on chair-based games and other more sedate forms of exercise, while encouraging those taking part to undertake proper health checks.

Another beneficiary of the Big Lottery's latest £4.5million spending round is Central Lancashire Age Concern, which has received £328,000 for an initiative focusing on older people from the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

For the last five years Drew Dewing-Drake has run 'Friends of Dorothy', a project aimed at ending the isolation of older gay and lesbian men and women.

Drew said that because many had become separated from their families, and had endured prejudice regarding their sexuality, social isolation among older people from LGBT communities was a real issue.

Work has focused mainly on the Chorley, Leyland and Preston areas but Drew is keen to expand the scope of his future efforts into Blackburn with Darwen, as part of a new five-year stint, under the banner of 'Older and Out'.

If organisations or individuals would like to find out more about the kind of support Drew can provide then contact Age Concern on 01257 552800.