Compassionate Communities Pembrokeshire
A project to help develop compassionate communities and support people to talk about death and dying has been funded by Arwain Sir Benfro.
Arwain Sir Benfro – the Local Action Group (LAG) for Pembrokeshire, administered by PLANED has provided funding of £14,909 to Community Choice and Inclusion for their Compassionate Community project. This is funded through the LEADER programme, which is part of the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014 – 2020, Funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.
A Compassionate Community is a community that is at ease with itself in talking about the issues arising from ‘ageing’ and sickness and is an active approach to community development. It actively involves citizens in their own end-of-life care and support concerns and solutions. In the process this can change social environments, cultures, conduct and attitudes towards end of life experiences and self-care and the potential to greatly reduce pressures on over stretched Statutory Health, Social services and Third sector supports with citizens who are informed and able support each other to think about, talk about and write down their future care plans.
Planning for future care-needs involves talking about death, dying, caring and grief and this is a topic that is not addressed very well by the general population. The project aims to improve the quality of life for those living with advanced illness and experiencing death, dying loss and care; to reduce the fear, uncertainty and lack of knowledge that can act as a barriers to accessing palliative care.
Arwain Sir Benfro is currently supporting project ideas from local community groups, organisations and businesses. As the Local Action Group for Pembrokeshire, we bring together a mix of local community representatives, business, third sector, local authority partners.
LEADER is supporting all kinds of activity: mentoring, training, feasibility studies or pilot projects that test an innovative new idea. It can also be used for projects that improve local skills, make better use of a local resource or realise the economic potential of part of the locality leading to a ‘new’ outcome or product.