The Challenge

The Safe and Secure in Sheffield programme was a community led response to help protect vulnerable adults. Early work identified that a within South Asian communities, awareness of elder abuse and local support services was low. We were tasked with mobilising appropriate responses.

Our Approach:

We worked with Sheffield City Council and a local South Asian Women’s Group to understand local needs and create increased involvement and awareness.
We spent time and talked with local women over lunch and other informal activities to discuss safeguarding and vulnerability in culturally sensitive ways. As a way of building social capital and sharing ‘what works’ from other areas, we organised trips to other areas with strong South Asian community networks where we had worked.
By building confidence and awareness of issues, we slowly involved women in specific training sessions developed to help them raise awareness of adult protection issues and to skill them in signposting others into services and help.

The results:

• 45 women were trained in basic adult protection training
• A part-time community worker has been employed to maintain the programme
• An active but informal social group has been maintained