HAIRE’s project partners have developed and deployed the HAIRE toolkit in the 8 pilot sites. The training of volunteers and social care professionals to use the toolkit in the pilot sites has taken place which allowed 'HAIRE Enablers' to conduct 500 Guided Conversations with people over the age of 60 who are no longer in employment. The cross-border cooperation has been outstanding, with every partner contributing to PMGs, drop-in sessions, CREATE and SHAPE workshops, working in small Action Learning Sets and attending the final conference in Gent in February 2023. 
The CREATE and SHAPE processes have resulted in numerous local innovations to support people suffering loneliness and isolation. These include knitting and walking groups, community transport, welcome postcards, intergenerational projects, community directories and more. 

Partners have developed relationships with organisations interested in the transferability of the toolkit both geographically (adjacent to and beyond pilot sites) but also across sector boundaries to unexpected target groups. HAIRE’s approach is being applied more widely, e.g. for mental health support in different vulnerable groups such as the homeless (with CoLab in Exeter, UK) and to support doctors and social prescribers to deliver on a key NHS priority for healthy ageing (with the Coastal Primary Care Network in Cornwall, UK). It is being used to support the development of the Age-Friendly Community strategy in Hastings (UK). The toolkit has also been adapted for use in municipalities in Belgium and by a charity supporting young people in Somerset, UK. A comprehensive WIKI is now being completed so that future users can adapt the HAIRE Toolkit to tackle issues that they face in their own communities.

HAIRE’s legacy is a real highlight. In most pilot sites, the work will go on. Feock parish Council has secured funding for a permanent, part-time role in the community. Meanwhile, Welzijnszorg Kempen noted that the project changed the way people were communicating with the local municipality and how they organised themselves. Elsewhere, the Département du Nord has created multi-agency policy working groups of elected members, older people, and care agencies. The toolkit has been taken up to support Community Health Workers in central Cornwall.

For me, HAIRE is synonymous with sharing… we discovered a fabulous team, around a common goal when we were elaborating the first sketches of what became the Guided Conversation (GC).Co-design also extended into the pilot sites. 

Université d'Artois

 We had great input from our volunteers who effectively co-designed that part of the process and in that moment the project shifted… to [being] community-based, co-owned, co-delivered.

East Sussex County Council

Really enjoyed that HAIRE volunteers changed the way they thought about themselves and learn[ed] about other people. The project changed the way people were communicating with the local municipality and how they organised themselves. My heart…jump[ed] when [a] staff member of the mobility team reached out to the HAIRE team, saying we are changing this maybe we should have a look at this together. That never happened before.

Université d’Artois