Vincúlate: Strengthening rural communities to address the unwanted loneliness of older people

The programme «Vincúlate: Strengthening rural communities to intervene against the unwanted loneliness of older people.«which is carried out by the Spanish Red Cross, The project promotes support networks and enhances community participation in order to reduce the risk of social exclusion of older people living in rural areas.

The programme is implemented in 13 territories distributed across the length and breadth of the country. Andaira's service, in conjunction with the consulting firm Means Evaluation, The evaluation is a mixed and collaborative evaluation of the programme, as the last link in the chain of analysis, and is oriented towards improvement through the theory of change. The evaluation adopts a variety of techniques such as telephone surveys, questionnaires addressed to the technical staff running the programme, semi-structured interviews with users, analysis of sociability networks, observation of activities and the construction of micro-stories of life through stories constructed collectively by the elderly themselves.

This evaluation stands out for the comprehensive and holistic nature of the evaluation, which also included trips to the 13 territories where the project is implemented. This made it possible to get to know the particularities of each area and to recognise the situated character that the programme adopts in each case.