Dunbar is a town on the coast of East Lothian. In 2020, the population showed that 15,257 people lived in the Dunbar and the East Linton area, which accounts for 14.1% of the population of East Lothian. It is projected the Dunbar population will increase by 16.8% to 17,243 by 2028. This is higher than the projected 7.2% increase for East Lothian as a whole. Proportionally more people aged 15 live in this area. The National Records for Scotland indicate that the population for 65 and over will also increase.

The improvement issue

Dunbar Grammar School (DGS) has been successfully running intergenerational programmes for over 20 years. This includes young people visiting local sheltered housing, such as Dunbar Day Centre, Local Nursing Homes and Belhaven Hospital. Due to the success of this programme, staff at DGS wanted to expand the offer so that more people could benefit from intergenerational work.

What Dunbar Grammar School did

Staff at DGS worked in partnership with local community groups to organise two pilot Burns Suppers in 2019. These events highlighted that older adults in the local community were often missing their evening meals and felt isolated within the community. As a result, Dinner@DGS was launched in May of that year. Dinner@DGS aims to address issues of isolation by bringing together both young people and older adults to build friendships through food and spending time together.

The project had to stop temporarily during Covid but re-started with Dunbar Rotary and East Lothian Council’s Connected Communities staff making home deliveries of hot food and the young people corresponding with their older friends. The project became fully operational again in May 2022.

Discussions took place to identify the issues facing older people in the Dunbar area. Through questionnaires and informal conversations, it was highlighted that many of the older adults were missing their evening meals and replacing them with snacks. The older adults said they felt isolated at times. By attending the dinners, this would give them the chance to socialise with their peers and the opportunity to form connections with young people.

The intergenerational project aims to benefit both young people and older adults by improving understanding and communication and change the misconception that neither group like each other. Young and older friends meet weekly, enabling them to form and sustain positive relationships.

The goals for Dinner at DGS are:

• older friends report feeling less isolated;
• older friends form friendships with their peers, volunteers, and young people;
• older friends, young people and volunteers increase their awareness of food, nutrition, and the impact of malnutrition;
• young people have opportunities to share and increase their skills for learning, life and work;
• young people are encouraged to complete Youth Scotland and Saltire awards; and
• both older and young people report improvements to their mental health and wellbeing and confidence with an increasing sense of belonging.

Key to the intergenerational project has been partnership working, both in helping to identify the issues and addressing them. There are too many partners contributing to list but here are a few highlights: Dementia Friendly East Lothian have given ongoing, invaluable support, advice, and hands on help from the start. The Ridge SCIO providing a nutritional advisor and cook cascading her knowledge and skills and the Ridge Backlands Garden providing opportunities to learn gardening skills, outdoor cooking, and experience plant to plate.

This partnership approach encouraged school staff to volunteer their time and offer their expertise in food hygiene and nutrition. Dunbar Rotary organised the transport for those adults that required this support. Transport had been identified as an issue for older friends. The project continues to be supported by many volunteers including the young people, East Lothian Council young carers staff and young people, Rotarians, and school staff.

Through focus groups with young people, it was identified that young people should have the opportunity to achieve Saltire and Youth Scotland awards. This would allow the young people to improve their social skills and have their volunteering recognised.

Connected Communities and Pupil Support recognise that the young people involved would benefit from linking their skills to award programmes such as Saltire and Youth Scotland which value and celebrate the achievements of children and young people. This enables young people to build on their personal development and make a difference to their positive destinations when leaving school. Connected Communities Specialist Youth Worker and Pupil Support are currently working to support a peer group of young people with their volunteering awards.

Funding has been applied for from various sources such as ‘small Ideas, Big impact’, Dunbar community council and the Dunbar and East Linton area partnership. The evaluations are included below.

What the sustained impact has been

The needs of older adults are being identified successfully through local partnership working. Referrals come through Community Practice Nurse, Day Centre, Community Link Worker Royal Voluntary Service, Rotarians, Dunbar Community Council, The Ridge third sector organisation and members of the community.

Pupil Support at Dunbar Grammar and Young Carers East Lothian are supporting young people well to become involved with the project through. Three young people have progressed to employment after school in the service industry. Evidence from them shows the influence of the dinners and the nurturing environment was key to their success. These young people continue to volunteer with the project.

Young people are developing successfully important skills for life and work. They are actively involved in the design and planning of the dinners. Choosing tasks, trying new things, and working as a team. They also consult with their older friends on any changes they would like and involve them in decision making. This is ensuring the inter-generational learning programmes supports participants of all ages to learn from each other. The tasks are now being tracked, helping to keep the young people more focused and helps with the recording for youth work awards.

Feedback from Pupil Support staff has highlighted that involvement in the project is having a positive impact on young people’s attendance and attainment at school.

Older friends discuss the impact weekly on how much they enjoy the interactions and now report feeling less isolated. They also report feeling valued by the young people and now have a sense of purpose and they are cooking and eating when at home. They have said they feel more able to take part in other activities, for example some participated in an intergenerational holiday to Barra in 2023. An activity some said changed their lives, inspiring them to organise other local adventures.

Regular local partnership meetings discuss current practices and developments and have reached out to other areas to explore similar intergenerational work. For example, a small group visited the Black Isle, Inverness to share good practice. The dinners have also been featured on STV news and have been awarded the East Lothian Star community group award. Two young volunteers have achieved Community Champions awards and Community Council awards.

The intergenerational project has grown, there are now 24 young volunteers (ages from 10 – 20) and 54 older friends (ages from 70-100) regularly meeting and benefiting from their involvement in the Dinner@DGS.