In March 2020, Glasgow's Golden Generation closed its three day centres and face to face centres to protect service users, volunteers and staff from Covid 19. At the time it was hoped the pandemic would only last a matter of weeks or months at most so it has been devastating for all three centres to lie empty for over a year.

Thankfully GGG was able to respond to the needs of older adults in the city and the three day centres became hubs of activity for our food parcel delivery work. Support Workers became Delivery Drivers. Centre Managers became Operations Leaders. Chefs became Parcel Packers. Older adults were supported through a range of services including food parcels, a bespoke app and befriending, but sadly were unable to attend the day centres.

Plans are in place to reopen all three day centres by mid August, with other services gradually taking a blended approach with some face to face visits available in coming weeks.

The charity is in a difficult position; older adults have been saying that they want and need the day centres to open for the past 15 months, however it has not been safe to do so. Now that it is possible to put measures in place to reduce the risk, these measures mean allowing fewer older adults to attend which in turn means the services will be running at a loss.

GGG doesn't have a definite date for the centres opening at full capacity because of ongoing restrictions. Before Covid up to 120 older adults could attend the day centres across the city per day. This has been reduced to 45 older adults per day due to social distancing and other restrictions.

It is crucial that the services are able to reopen for older adults because without them service users are struggling, lonely and isolated. With your help, we can make this financially viable.