Eleanor Palmer Trust

The Eleanor Palmer Trust, established in 1558, upholds founder Eleanor Palmer's vision of relieving poverty through high-quality housing, care, grants, and support services enabling older people to live independently with dignity. Core values of compassion, inclusion, and personal choice drive its grantmaking, emphasizing person-centred care, welfare enhancement, and social inclusion for those in financial hardship. It believes lasting impact arises from tailored, long-term interventions fostering autonomy, community connections, and resilience against isolation, partnering with local organizations for holistic, preventative wellbeing.

It prioritizes elderly care for people aged 60 and over (or 55 plus in substantial need) with limited assets, delivering sheltered housing and almshouses featuring self-contained accommodation, 24/7 emergency response, housing support officers, social activities, and communal facilities to combat loneliness and promote independence. Residential care homes, regulated for quality, support older individuals with dementia, physical disabilities, and complex health needs through personalised care, safety measures, family connections, and therapeutic daily living. Grants fund palliative care for hospice patients, essential furniture provision alleviating poverty for families in hardship, inclusive outdoor activities and sports for children with disabilities and learning disabilities, and lunch clubs providing peer support, befriending, and community-led initiatives tackling social isolation among elderly residents experiencing distress.

Exclusively dedicated to disadvantaged older people with local ties to historic Barnet and East Barnet communities, it avoids broader national or non-local efforts, individual medical treatments beyond palliative relief, or activities unrelated to housing, welfare, or aged care. Distinctive for its centuries-old place-based identity, blend of direct service provision and targeted grants, emphasis on financial hardship relief intertwined with dementia care and physical disability support, and trustee-led selection prioritizing grassroots charities delivering evidence-based, trauma-informed interventions for isolated elderly and families in crisis.