East Sussex Community Wellbeing Fund - Spring 2023 has provided £5,000 of match funding
The Posh Club, Hastings
Saint Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Aim
The Posh Club combats isolation and loneliness in older people by providing a weekly glamorous, black tie cabaret in a nightclub setting
What is The Posh Club?
The Posh Club is a glamorous performance and social club for older people held weekly in Hastings and St Leonards and in several other locations across London and the South East.
Each three and a half hour event is styled as a tongue in cheek 'posh' 1940s afternoon tea with three live show business turns, volunteer waiters in black tie, vintage crockery and an in-house pianist.
The Posh Club is held in the heart of our community in an elegantly transformed Church hall. It creates a jazz club meets Moulin Rouge vibe. we host approximately 100 guests per week.
It encourages glamorous dressing up, sequins and sparkles, dancing shoes, a sense of occasion.
It allows access to good quality live performance across a variety of genres.
It enables social connectivity and intergenerational volunteering.
Most of all it promotes fun and laughter. It's a good old knees up, a chance to be welcomed, connected, and to meet new and old friends.
It most certainly isn't your average older people's event!
Read about The Posh Club in Vice
Read about The Posh Club in The Guardian
We are trying to raise money for The Posh Club Hastings so we can continue to combat isolation and loneliness in older people in our community.
With your support and generosity, we will be able to do this.
How will my money help?
We are really grateful to our main funders Arts Council England for the support they give us, but we need to boost this with as much help as we can get from public sponsors and supporters, our friends and our neighbours.
We need enough funds to cover hall hire, hall improvements to facilitate the events, insurance, food and drinks, and high end entertainment for thirty events a year.
We would like to secure enough funds to cover this year and following years to allow more guests from our community to enjoy the wonderful high quality service that Posh Club provides and that our older people so deserve.
100% of funds raised will go directly towards hosting these wonderful events.
How can you find The Posh Club?
How can you help?
Donate
However much or little you are able to give, your support will help us keep older people socially connected.
Share
Help spread the word and encourage others to donate as well. We would also love to see a selfie, of you holding your Posh Club gift, when it arrives, don't forget to tag us!
Get in Touch
If you think that you may have a reward that we could add to our project to encourage donations, please get in touch [email protected]
Why is this service so important?
Hundred of thousands of elderly people are lonely and cut off from society in this country, especially those over he age of 75 and particularly since the Covid pandemic.
According to Age Uk, more than 2 million people in England over the age of 75 live alone, and more than a million oder people say they go for over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.
The Posh Club has delivered a longitudinal research project around loneliness in partnership with Queen Mary University of London and supported by an Arts Council Research Grant.
The project looked at the impact of the Posh Club on older adults' engagement, health and well being.
Nearly half of older people (49% of 65+ in the UK) say that television or pets are their main form of company.
Loneliness can be as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
People with a high degree of loneliness are twice as likely to develop Alzheimers as people with a low degree of loneliness
Source - Age UK
Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of Dementia by 50%. Other health and well being risks related to loneliness include:
Stroke ( risk increases by 32%), Heart disease ( risk increases by 29%), Mental health disorders ( risk increases by26%), Premature mortality ( risk increases by 26%)
Source- Consumer Affairs
We recognise that bringing people together does not in itself combat isolation or loneliness.It is the quality of relationships they make that has impact.
The staff and volunteers at Posh Club make sure we know our guests and their circumstances well so they feel cared for, included and always welcome so that we can enable them to make meaningful relationships.
This project successfully funded on 24th August 2023