Whilst August can be quiet for some- it's been all go, as usual, in Age-Friendly Greater Manchester. Last week we brought partners old and new together to hear exciting plans for International Day of Older Persons (1 October) - Older and Greener: Tackling the climate emergency together. If you would like to talk to us about collaborating on the campaign, we'd love to hear from you!
Next month, we'll be launching a new Framework for Creating Age-Friendly Homes in Greater Manchester. We invite you join us for the virtual launch event to learn about the thematic priorities, and showcase some of the work of partners to achieve these ambitions.
Also in September, we're looking forward to bringing together the political leads for ageing and our age-friendly local lead officers in each of the Greater Manchester localities, to talk about what's important to older people in this time of easing of restrictions and resumption of face to face meetings.
As always, we thank you for your continued support.
Greater Manchester Ageing Hub
News
Launch of Framework for Creating Age-Friendly Homes in Greater Manchester
Join the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub for the launch of the Framework for Creating Age-Friendly Homes in Greater Manchester – an ambitious, collaborative programme to address Greater Manchester’s long-term ambition to improve the quality and quantity of age-friendly housing within the city region.
The virtual event on Tuesday 14 September 2021, 4-5pm will provide an opportunity to learn about the thematic priorities, and showcase some of the work of partners to achieve these ambitions. This will include the launch of a new publication, ‘A Design for Life’, which sets out a challenge to architects, developers and policy-makers to come together around the ageing agenda to meet the changing needs and aspirations of our diverse older population.
Confirmed speakers include:
• Paul Dennett – Salford City Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) portfolio lead for Housing and Homelessness
• Karen Mitchell – Chair of the GM Ageing Hub Housing, Planning and Ageing Group and Chief Executive of Southway Housing Trust
• Stefan White – Professor of Architecture at Manchester Metropolitan University
• David Orr CBE, Chair of the independent panel of the Good Home Inquiry, commissioned by the Centre for Ageing Better
Older and Greener: Tackling the climate emergency together
Every year, Greater Manchester join our fellow members of the UK Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities to mark UN's International Day of Older People (IDOP) on 1 October.
This year on 1 October, we'll be marking International Day of Older Persons with the campaign Older and Greener: Tackling the climate emergency together.
GM Ageing Hub are requesting content from partner organisations relating to the theme of older adults and the environment – to be sent into the GM Ageing Hub by Friday 17 September.
In next month's newsletter we look forward to featuring the exciting plans from across Age-Friendly Greater Manchester for the day.
‘Couch to Out and About’: age-friendly walking in Tameside
In a drive to increase physical activity among older residents, Tameside Council developed the ‘Couch to Out and About’ benches and walking project. The project is designed to increase the walkability of the area, but also to encourage residents to be more active and social in their local community.
The project utilises the infrastructure that already exists in terms of parks, the canal, river and town centre but connects them all in a more practical and suitable way. The routes vary in length and difficulty with the idea people can build up their activity over time. The routes also incorporate other modes of transport if people only want to walk part of the way.
Public backs local home improvement hubs to help fix poor-quality housing
With over four million poor-quality homes in England, over half of which are lived in by older people, new research finds that local hubs have been backed by the public as a way to help address poor housing. The idea of a ‘one stop shop’ local housing hub that provides people with information and advice on how to make home repairs and improvements has received backing from the public, as a means to help fix poor-quality housing.
Co-commissioned by the Centre for Ageing Better and UK Research and Innovation’s Sciencewise programme for the Good Home Inquiry, the project conducted by BritainThinks brought together 89 people experiencing problems with their homes, including private renters, people in social rented homes, and homeowners, alongside housing experts and policymakers.
Take part in the debate about the role of arts and culture in a post pandemic world
The Great Place GM Online Conference is a series of 4 lunchtime webinars taking place over 4 weeks and focusing on the 4 main themes of the Great Place GM programme; Culture, Health and Wellbeing; Creative Ageing; No one left out; and Our Place.
At each webinar, you will hear about project successes and lessons learnt, programme outcomes and how we are taking this work forward across Greater Manchester. Our partners from the worlds of health, housing, arts, heritage, local government and the voluntary sector will give their perspectives, and there will also be an opportunity to take part in a Q&A with participants.
Challenging perceptions of ageing - Old stock new stock
Old Stock New Stock is a series of ambitious artworks that have been created to challenge perceptions of ageing in stock photography. Working with our elder collaborators, we’ve developed portraits to portray the things they’re passionate about.
The series of portraits were taken by Joe Smith and are being displayed throughout Greater Manchester in community spaces that are important to our elders, reinhabiting spaces they might not have been able to access over the pandemic.
As restrictions are lifted, life is expected to return to “normal”. And while this is a positive step in the right direction, for many it will feel quite scary – and that’s understandable. It’s perfectly natural to feel anxious and it’s important to know you’re not alone. There’s no right or wrong way to feel.
Members of the Age-friendly Greater Manchester wider team have been meeting as a task and finish group around the theme of easing of restrictions and resumption of face to face meetings. If you'd like to find out more please get in touch
Social eating guide from Ambition for Ageing
Evidence increasingly shows that communal eating promotes social bonding and feelings of well-being. It also enhances people’s connections to their communities.
The new Social Eating Guide and supporting documents have been created after a two-year programme delivered by a partnership of organisations, led by Talk, Listen, Change, (TLC), who designed and tested a range of social eating project in Greater Manchester.
The information is available in three documents:
Social Eating Guide- a useful practical guide for groups and organisations wishing to set up social eating activities
Technical Handbook- additional technical information about setting up social eating activities
Project Story - evaluation and key learning from the project as we ran it
Public Health England Indicators and Tools: Productive Healthy Ageing Profile Update
This tool provides data and further information on a wide range of topics relevant to our health as we age. Indicators can be examined at local, regional and/or national level. These and the further resources signposting sections below are an ongoing development
Recently, the Productive Healthy Ageing Profile has been updated to include new indicators.These updates include a new Public Health Outcomes Framework indicator on loneliness, and an update of percentage population aged 65 years and over (local authority based version) in the ‘Demographics & Mortality’ domain.
Age-Friendly Places in Practice online workshops - Book your place now
Next month Ambition for Ageing are delivering a second round of online practice based-workshops for anyone working to make neighbourhoods more age-friendly.
Each workshop will focus on a specific area of learning. Over the last six years, our programme has developed an evidence base on communities, ageing, equalities and co-production, and we want to share this learning and provide an opportunity to apply it in practice.
The workshops are designed for anyone working to make neighbourhoods more age-friendly, including project managers, community development workers, and neighbourhood volunteers.
Each workshop will include practical examples, a guest presentation, an opportunity to share ideas with other practitioners and space to reflect on applying the learning to where you work.
You can attend just one workshops or all three. Each workshop will take place 11am – 12:15pm.
Each week, GM Ageing Hub bring together a wide range of practitioners, researchers and academics, alongside the ten locality leads and representation from the GM Older People’s Network. We aim to grow the movement of age-friendly system leaders working at all levels of the system, geography, communities and organisations in Greater Manchester to deliver Age-Friendly Greater Manchester.
Earlier this month at our Age friendly GM wider team meeting, we welcomed Professor Andrew Clark a.clark@salford.ac.uk from Salford University who presented on, ‘Does Local Matter?’
The UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the suspension of several face-to-face activities and support groups for older people. Across Salford, and in common with the rest of the UK, organisations began to deliver activities at a distance. In this brief presentation Andrew will share findings from a recently completed research project undertaken with the Age-Friendly Salford network and Inspiring Communities Together. The work explored experiences, benefits and challenges of moving support and engagement activities online from two perspectives: 1) stakeholders involved in running and arranging such activity and 2) older people who accessed that activity. It had an additional focus on whether there are specific benefits or limitations to such activity being delivered by local organisations to explicitly local populations.
Opportunity to influence: Autism and older adults
8th September 6 - 8 pm
Greater Manchester Autism Consortium wants to reach diverse communities within Greater Manchester (GM), including older autistic people. They are having a series of Stakeholder events on Zoom to look at progress made so far in the GM Autism Strategy and to look ahead at what should be within the next GM Autism Strategy starting April 2022.
Participants wanted: people running support groups for carers in rural areas
Participants are wanted to support research project around the experience of informal older carers of people with dementia living in semi-rural/rural community settings during COVID-19 restrictions.
University of Manchester are looking for people who run support groups and other support services to take part in a creative photography activity to document their insights into the experience of carers of people with dementia during COVID-19 restrictions. The project will involve two sessions conducted on Zoom.
Respecting Trans and Gender Diverse People Around Death and Bereavement
Wed 1 September, 6 - 7.30pm
Join LGBT Foundation for an evening with Ash Hayhurst, consultant for a new death and bereavement project led by UK-wide trans and gender diverse charity GIRES. This event will take place online and will be chaired by Zane Robinson (Trans Programme Coordinator and Community Programme Manager at LGBT Foundation) and will include an audience Q&A.
Webinar: Keep on movin' - the importance of staying active in your 50s and 60s
Mon 6 September, 2 - 3pm
This webinar will explore the motivators and barriers to physical activity for people in their 50s and 60s, and what might work to help people in this age group feel the benefits and get active.
Online launch of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing Platform
Tues 7 September
Join the virtual launch of the Decade knowledge exchange Platform: an online, multilingual collaboration space that helps everyone find, share, and produce the knowledge they need to create a world where all people can live long, healthy lives.
Separate launch events will be held for the English, French, and Spanish versions of the Platform, each with their own unique programme.
Join people and partners from across Greater Manchester as we launch GM Moving in Action, the shared vision and plan for a healthier, happier city region.
Over the last six months we have engaged with over 2,000 people on the strategy; and we are delighted to be able to launch it at the 2021 GM Moving In Action Conference on Monday 13th September.
A day full of inspiration and action, with opportunities to learn, connect and commit to our future role in this movement, for movement.
Whatever you do, wherever you are, whatever your role. This is about all of us, and everyone is invited.
Launch Event: Creating Age-Friendly Homes in Greater Manchester
Tues 14 September, 4 - 5pm
The event will provide an opportunity to learn about the thematic priorities, and showcase some of the work of partners to achieve these ambitions. This will include the launch of a new publication, ‘A Design for Life’, which sets out a challenge to architects, developers and policy-makers to come together around the ageing agenda to meet the changing needs and aspirations of our diverse older population.
Panel event on digital inequalities: How can we make the digital world accessible to older people?
Fri 17 September, 1.30 - 2.30pm at The Radisson Hotel Manchester
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to move much of our lives online. But as we have moved into a digital world some people have been left behind. One such group is older people, with 77% of those aged 70 and above having low levels of digital engagement. Our panel of experts will discuss the causes of differing levels of accessibility and engagement, and what we can do to make sure everyone has the opportunity to access the digital world.
Panellists:
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
Adam Micklethwaite, Director of Partnerships and Fundraising at Good Things Foundation
Chris Todd, Professor of Primary Care and Community Health at The University of Manchester
Sophie Yarker, Research Associate at The University of Manchester
Alzheimer’s Research UK Clinical Conference
Thurs 30 September and Fri 1 October 2021
This is a multi-disciplinary conference, supporting clinical practice and providing insight into innovation and updates on research and clinical trials in the field.
Sonder Radio - Podcasting Course
Starting Mon 4 October
Sonder Radio are running a 3 week Podcasting course from the 4th of October. During the course participants will have the opportunity to learn how to create their own podcast and all that comes along with this exciting new digital landscape. Throughout the 3 weeks participants will be guided through the nuts and bolts of this world by trained facilitators and supported wherever needed. This course is aimed at 50-70 year olds who are currently seeking employment. In the final week of the course we will also be running various workshops on employment, from interview techniques and tips to CV writing skills. The course will run from 10am-3pm, Mon-Fri.
Get in touch via email at hello@sonderradio.com Or get in contact with either of the facilitators via phone Alex 07873437601 or Autumn 07873437501
If you have any resources relating to COVID19 and older people that you would like to share, please send them to ageinghub@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk.
Our mailing address is:
Greater Manchester Ageing Hub
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
1st Floor Broadhurst House, 56 Oxford Street
Manchester M1 6EU
United Kingdom
