Sydney New Year's Eve Fireworks

Sydney New Year's Eve Fireworks

Sydney New Year's Eve Fireworks

New Year’s Eve in Sydney

This year I spent new year’s eve in Sydney and saw the amazing end of year firework display. On the work front I took the opportunity to visit Abbeyfield Australia and Abbeyfield New Zealand. A report and photos will follow. Suffice to say the Abbeyfield tradition is very string in these two countries, which represent around 40% or our total of operations outside the UK

Meanwhile I would like to thank you all for visiting this Blog and wish you all the very best for the coming year, both for your Abbeyfield activities and other endeavours!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 22 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Table Top Mountain Capetown

Abbeyfield South Africa’s December Newsletter provides a great account of the pioneering work happening there as well as an account of Director Zoe Paul’s recent visit to several Abbeyfield homes in the UK including Browns Field House, and An Lac House. Click on the link below to see!

newsletter 55

Abbeyfield South Africa Team

Canada is a huge country and distances between major cities are daunting. After all this is the world’s second largest country! Abbeyfield is well-developed in Canada, with some 28 houses spread from Ontario across to Victoria and Northwards to Port Arthur.

Canada pioneered the ‘life lease’ scheme by which those wishing to pay a lump sum can purchase a lease or membership arrangement on which interest is paid and used to offset the rent charges. The scheme has the advantage of providing capital for new developments. A similar scheme called ‘Life Membership’ has been developed for the Abbeyfield US project in St.Joseph, Illinois.

The first house in Canada to use the life lease system was in Durham, north of Toronto.

Inside Abbeyfield Durham

Expanding need, expanding programme

Abbeyfield Canada expect two more houses to be built within the next year, Abbeyfield Markdale and a house in the Yukon. Like everywhere else in the world, the numbers of older people are increasing dramatically in the future.

Building plot for Abbeyfield Markdale

New and contemporary

One of the most recent houses to open is Abbeyfield Caledon. At the time of visiting in October residents were still being recruited so the house was around half full. Contemporary architecture, high ceilings and a high standard of finish will all help attract residents as will the traditional Abbeyfield ingredients of two cooked meals per day, support by volunteers, and a friendly community feel.

Abbeyfield Caledon exterior

The open and spacious feel continues inside

A variety of funding sources

Funding for Abbeyfield houses in Canada has come from privately raised money, state and municipal bodies and of course the life lease scheme mentioned above.The Abbeyfield house in Toronto was funded by the municipal authorities and has a social housing mandate.

Abbeyfield Toronto with some of those involved in the growth of Abbeyfield

Abbeyfield in BC

There are 19 houses in British Columbia, ranging from Victoria, Vancouver and across the interior, demonstrating the popularity of the Abbeyfield concept.

Great food is just one of the attractions of an Abbeyfield house

Muffins like these are enough to break anyone's resolve!

An Abbeyfield care home?

Abbeyfield Saanich Peninsula is trying to buy some land and raise money for a first Abbeyfield care home in Canada. Care is clearly complementary to an Abbeyfield house and Abbeyfield UK runs over 80m care homes, some of which have won several awards. But care means dealing with another level of compliance issues and quality standards as well as requiring much greater investment than a traditional Abbeyfield  house.

Potential site for care home

Abbeyfield Germany Headquarters

Abbeyfield Germany is based in the home of Abbeyfield Germany Chair, Alfred Hoffmann. Alfred’s house is in Bad Arolsen in Germany. Bad Arolsen (bad meaning Spa in German)is famous for being one the best-preserved baroque towns in Germany. The highpoint is the castle Schloss Arolsen, originally belonging to the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont. It was  built from 1713 until 1728 by architect Julius Ludwig Rothweil. Of particular importance are the ceiling paintings by the Italian artist Carlo Ludovici Castelli, and the outstanding stucco works by Andrea Gallasini.

Schloss Arolsen

The Abbeyfield office is a front room in Alfred’s baroque house.

Abbeyfield Office Window

Abbeyfield Without Walls

Abbeyfield Germany has four local groups. Each of these has well-developed plans for its first Abbeyfield house and is now at the point of looking at finance options. Meanwhile they operate a range of Abbeyfield activities, to raise awareness of Abbeyfield and build up a group of people interested in living in an Abbeyfield house. Clearly, the first Abbeyfield house is likely to increase interest in Abbeyfield dramatically. All the houses planned for Germany are traditonal Abbeyfield houses built to modern standards with around 12 residents.

Abbeyfield Germany Board at dinner

A Different Style of Abbeyfield House

The current four houses in Belgium differ from those found elsewhere. While common themes are the communal living and social activities in the houses, in Belgium the residents shop and cook for each other and all residents are on the Boards of their respective houses. This model works very well in Belgium in four houses, with the joint meals ranging from 2 per day to 2 per week + a brunch. This style of operation suits younger occupants and this is the case in most of the Belgium houses.

Inside Martin Pecheur

Owned by Municipalities, run by Abbeyfield

In general the Abbeyfield Belgium houses are owned by their respective municipalities, and are run by the local Abbeyfield group under the auspices of Abbeyfield Belgium.

Lunch with the Abbeyfield Belgium Board

Abbeyfield Belgium Namur is an old brewery!

Inside Abbeyfield Namur

Monique Verstraaten showing her Abbeyfield Royal Patron's Award to Namur residents

Monique receives her award from Julia Neuberger

Presented at Abbeyfield’s AGM at Lord’s Cricket Ground

Abbeyfield’s 51st Annual General Meeting took place at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the home of the Marylebone Cricket Club, on September 24th 2011. The meeting was chaired by Abbeyfield’s President, Baroness Julia Neuberger, who also presented the Royal Patron’s Awards. Monique Verstraaten received the International Award for her work in starting and developing Abbeyfield in Belgium over 15 years. Monique was the European Volunteers Association President when she met Foster Murphy, former CEO of Abbeyfield. That meeting inspired her to find out more about Abbeyfield and to start up Abbeyfield in Belgium. Monique has worked tirelessly over 15 years to promote and develop Abbeyfield in Belgium and to form the vibrant community of the current four Abbeyfield houses with more planned.

Monique with her husband, Yves at at the Abbeyfield AGM

What we offer

Somebody suggested I write a short blog on exactly what the International Department can offer in terms of help and assistance, so here goes! Clearly, the situation is evolving all the time but I will attempt to summarise our current services.And if something you need does not appear here, please ask! Treat it like a restaurant: if it’s not on the menu just ask the Chef!

Business planning, feasibility and strategy

The main service-and my background-is business planning, feasibility and strategy. For existing Abbeyfield Societies that normally means a visit to agree a development plan and assess the issues on the ground. The planning meeting will cover the next steps and assistance that Abbeyfield’s international Department can give you. The end point is that every office has an agreed startegic and business plan.

For new or potential Abbeyfield Societies that means taking you through the steps of developing an Abbeyfield project and ensuring  that you follow through the logical development steps.
As well as help with business planning, other practical assistance for the above will then fall into one of the categories below.

Fundraising advice and support

We can help you fund your projects by talking through all the sources of funds, and explaining how other Abbeyfield Societies have funded their projects. In very specific cases, funds may be available from government sources or from Trusts and Foundations.  We maintain an overview of these sources and can guide you accordingly.

We can also help you with specific questions such as legacy fundraising.

Marketing and Branding Support

We have a range of materials and templates available that cover everything from newsletters to marketing your house. These can be quickly filled with your text and Bingo you have then created a professional standard leaflet.

In particular, we can help you with Website implementation. As a previous Blog describes, Abbeyfield is implementing a new Global Website that can host your site free, and ensure you are integrated both graphically and practically to the Abbeyfield family. Equally importantly, the site will feature an accommodation search that can include your houses. The new Abbeyfield site will have a phased delivery between January and March 2012. Meanwhile, we can help set you up a Website like this Blog, which uses a free software and hosting solution.

Communications

For the moment, this Blog is our principle tool for informing you what is happening around the world. When the new Website is launched, the Blog will be part of the site and form a seamless resource for you. We can also link you with others who have started up Abbeyfield houses, who can help or mentor you.

Financial Modelling and Planning

Using bespoke software we can model and test out all the assumptions of your business plan and ensure your Abbeyfield project is viable and can meet its financial targets.

Quality

From model policies to advice, we can help you with all the practical aspects of ensuring a quality service. Policies and other materials will be available in the members only area of the new Website.

A Team Effort

These services are of course delivered by all the Departments of Abbeyfield, as well as International. The Milan Conference in May 2011 clearly demonstrated that Abbeyfield is going global, and has the resources in place to support and nurture this direction.

David Coe

International Director

d.coe@abbeyfield.com

New Board member Ingrid Lestrade with Annie Templeton, a fellow Director of the Goedgedacht Trust

Abbeyfield South Africa has made a new appointment to its Board as it adds new people to ensure it is representative of the communities it serves.

Ingrid Lestrade

One of the 'POP' projects where Ingrid works

Ingrid Lestrade is 32 years old. She comes from a little rural community
situated on the west coast of South Africa. She was born into great
poverty with a single mother and four sisters. Ambitious from a young
age she was able to make her way through school and soon after became
one of South Africa’s Judo champions. She started University but had to
drop out after a couple of months into her first year because she
couldn’t afford to pay the fees. To earn some money she started cleaning
cars for a company and was soon promoted to working in admin. She then
started working as the secretary for Lawyers for Human Rights and not
long after was promoted to Trainer. Within a couple of years she was
running the Lawyers for Human Rights office in Stellenbosch. It was here
where she developed a love of youth work. She started working one day a
week for the Goedgedacht Trust in the Riebeeksrivier Valley training
rural youth. In 2000 Ingrid was appointed full time community worker and
youth worker for the Goedgedacht Trust. Through the Trust she was able
to return to university and complete her LLB degree. For the past 12
years Ingrid has been developing a programme called the Path Out of
Poverty (POP) programme for rural children and youth. Four main threads
that run through this programme are: Education, Health, Personal
Development and Climate Change. Ingrid is currently roling out this best
practise model to other rural areas. In 2010 Ingrid was made co-director
of the Goedgedacht Trust.

Abbeyfield South Africa hopes to integrate rural housing for older people into the multi age POP projects.

Blue sky thinking for Websites

Free websites and hosting

Whether you are a large or small national society or an Abbeyfield project without a building yet, we can help you to have a professional Website to attract potential residents and to market your house or services. This Blog for example uses free software and free hosting, and (in my opinion at least!) gives a polished, professional approach. Do let me know if you need any help setting up a Website. A Blog site can be set up in hours, perhaps to help you over the interim period before the Abbeyfield website project is completed.

Abbeyfield’s website project

Abbeyfield has recently commissioned a UK company to develop a brand new website, with completion expected between January and March for the components most useful for national Abbeyfield Societies. Once it is completed it will provide a site for any national society, where you control the site content, and which is hosted free by the main Abbeyfield site. As hosting and Web development costs are expensive this will provide a huge benefit to anyone using this facility.it will also ease integration of Abbeyfield’s accomodation search facility.