The Eric Liddell Community

Who we are

About The Eric Liddell Community

The Eric Liddell Community is a local care charity and community hub based in south west Edinburgh delivering a range of services throughout the City.  We were founded in 1980 in memory of the 1924 400m Olympic Gold Medalist, Scottish Rugby International and committed missionary, Eric Liddell, when the need for care, compassion and community was recognised in this part of city.

Our Vision

To live in a community where no-one feels lonely or isolated

Our Mission

To bring people together in their local communities to enhance health and wellbeing and have a positive impact on their lives

We achieve our vision and mission through three strategic programmes that support over 500 people each month. Our programmes of support for people living with dementia, include:

• Our flagship Day Care service.  Each week we welcome up to 70 clients, with 3,500 places each year, for person-centered support. This vital respite helps promote independent living , sustaining families in the community for longer.
• Our wellbeing programme for unpaid carers. This programme helps carers find ways to cope with the demands of their role while getting much needed respite.
• Our community hub programme, including our volunteer run community café and providing office spaces for social enterprises and other local charities. We have a footfall of over 2,000 visitors per month to the hub.  Most are regular customers to our café or attendees at a wide range of classes and activities.

Challenges we’ll face

There are a variety of challenges ahead for The Eric Liddell Community, in terms of sustaining funding for our service provision whilst maintaining the integrity of our building, to the increases in social isolation/loneliness in our communities and increased prevalence of people living with dementia.

Dementia

Alzheimers Scotland reports that in 2017, 93,282 people were living with dementia in Scotland, of whom 7,647 lived in the City of Edinburgh, this is the second largest density of people living with dementia in Scotland with Glasgow taking the lead. This is likely to double in the next 25 years, due to an increasing older population. To support our informal carers and those living with dementia we need to consider what positive impact we can have on those affected.

Social isolation

Age UK have identified that loneliness and isolation are stark realities for around 100,000 older people living in Scotland today. However, as MP Jo Cox stated “young or old, loneliness does not discriminate” with widowed adults, people living alone, men over the age of 50 and those within the LGBTI communities at a highest risk of social isolation and reporting feelings of loneliness. 11% of adults in Scotland often feel lonely, and 38% feel lonely sometimes (Mental Health Foundation 2010)

Funding

Due to decreases in the funding from Local Authorities, there are more applications for continuation and gap funding from trusts and grants. So much so that the Institute of fundraisers reports that; 1 in 10 applications is successful, which is a huge drain on fundraising staff time, as 9 out of 10 applications, many of which can be long and onerous to complete, are unsuccessful.