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`What works here doesn't work there'
 — The significance of local context for a sustainable and replicable asset-based community intervention aimed at promoting social interaction in later life
Author(s)Josephine M. Wildman, Nicole Valtorta, Suzanne Moffatt, Barbara Hanratty
Journal titleHealth and Social Care in the Community, February 2019
Pages1-9
Full text*https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hsc.12735
AnnotationInterventions that harness local assets to benefit a community are increasingly being promoted to improve health and wellü]being. In practice, we know little about how local contexts or reliance on local resources affect the sustainability and scalability of assetü]based community developments. This qualitative case study documents the development and implementation of a novel assetü]based community development project. Based in a large mainly rural county in North East England with relatively high levels of socioeconomic deprivation, the project aimed to prevent social isolation among older people, using a range of foodü]related activities. Twentyü]one semiü]structured interviews were conducted with service users, volunteers, project partners, project development workers and senior staff. Interviews explored the project's design and implementation process, outcomes for participants and the wider community, and project sustainability and scalability. Thematic analysis of the data identified four factors likely to be important for creating sustainable and replicable assetü]based community projects. These factors are (a) recognising and harnessing assets among local people who may be otherwise marginalised due to age, geographical isolation and/or socioeconomic deprivation; (b) identifying assets that can be provided by local businesses; (c) genuine project coü]production to develop activities that meet local needs and inspire enthusiasm among all stakeholders; and (d) ongoing organisational support to meet the challenges to sustainability that exist in socioeconomically deprived areas. We conclude that successful assetü]based community projects require extensive community input and learning captured from existing programmes can facilitate the replicability of programmes in other community contexts.
Accession NumberCPA-190327752 A
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