Belong Villages
Never mind the generation gap
The brief
The Belong Chester care village is the UK’s first intergenerational living development, integrating a full-time children’s nursery within a care setting; mixing older residents and nursery children on a daily basis and delivering transformative outcomes.
Triangle was tasked with promoting the concept of intergenerational living to the mainstream and lobbying for its adoption nationwide, while reinforcing Belong’s credentials as an innovator in the sector.
What happened
Media coverage
The Guardian ★ The Times ★ BBC One Show ★ ITV This Morning ★ The Mirror & Sunday People ★ BBC Radio 4 Today Programme ★ BBC Scotland ★ Times Radio ★ The Guardian ‘Today in Focus’ (podcast) ★ Heart Breakfast (National radio) ★ TalkTV - Trisha Goddard Show
International media coverage
Deutsche Welle (German TV) ★ Bloomberg CityLab (US online news) ★ CNN (US) ★ Radio Talk Europe (Spain-based English radio) ★ RNZ - Radio New Zealand ★ Good News Network (US)
Sentiment
“Everyone we meet is in raptures about Belong, and by the time we say goodbye I know that if I lived in Chester and had a preschool child or parents needing extra care, I’d be camped out on the pavement for a spot.”
Helen Pidd, North of England editor, The Guardian
Social media engagement
★ Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.
★ 7.1 million views (video stories) ★ 345,000 likes ★ 13,000 shares ★ 4,500 comments
Website traffic
★ Weekly website traffic up 300% following The Guardian article and 180% increase following the BBC One Show broadcast
★ Enquiries for places at the village tripled
Influencing national policy
★ Visit from the Director of Social Care at the Department of Health and Social Care, Michelle Dyson, and the Director General of Families at the Department of Education, Justin Russell.
★ Belong asked to contribute to the Centre for Social Justice’s ‘Lonely Nation’ research. Two policy recommendations in its report ‘Ending loneliness among older people’ were informed by Belong, including #18: the need to promote intergenerational practice within the government's National Care Service social care reform programme. Belong is cited as “a trailblazer in this space”.
★ Hosted visits for numerous care providers from around the world, academics and policy influencers, including the National Care Forum and Skills for Care.
Speaker opportunities
★ LaingBuisson Social Care Summit
★ ARCO (Associated Retirement Community Operators) Conference
★ Guest on Elevate Eldercare podcast (US-based with Susan Ryan, CEO of the Green House Project)
★ HammondCare Dementia Conference, Sydney, Australia
Who, what, how
Triangle packaged a multi-layered story of these transformative benefits, including mental and physical wellbeing, renewed purpose, language development, compassion and empathy, into a simple narrative of joy and happiness.
The media campaign leveraged the reach and authority of mainstream media to present the concept to the wider world and lobby for its adoption nationally.
Empirical evidence was gathered - in partnership with the Universities of Stirling and Northumbria - to confirm improvements in older residents’ physical and mental well-being.
Testimonials were obtained from residents and parents of nursery children.
Targeted approaches were made to national print and broadcast media; The Guardian being singled out as a priority.
Followed by immediate roll-out to other national print titles and major broadcast channels.
Interviews were arranged at the village for the BBC and ITV and broadcast in prime time slots.
We featured in The Times and on Times Radio and BBC Radio 4, amongst others.
Social media engagement enabled us to amplify the reach of all online coverage through a proactive digital strategy, especially posting out media coverage obtained, with links to online stories.
