November update from Greater Manchester Ageing Hub
This November, the Ageing Hub team have been busy preparing for the winter months.
We are delighted to be launching our new campaign 'Winterwise: a guide to keeping well this winter', in partnership with national charity Independent Age. The new booklet provides information to help older people keep safe and well this winter, focussing on three themes - 'Stay warm', 'Stay safe and 'Stay well'.
After months of hard work on the guide, over 325,000 copies will now be distributed across Greater Manchester into places like pharmacies, libraries and community hubs. For more information about the Winterwise campaign, or if you are interested in ordering the guide, please see the piece in the newsletter below.
This month, the Greater Manchester ageing ecosystem has also been busy welcoming a large number of international visitors to the city-region who are interested in our work. In November, the Hub and partners have welcomed visitors from South Korea, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. Keep an eye on the Ageing Hub website for a new blog piece on this soon!
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Greater Manchester Ageing Hub team
News
Winterwise guide launch
As the costs of energy, food and other bills continues to rise, the coming months are expected to be difficult for many older residents across the city-region.
With many older residents digitally excluded, Greater Manchester Ageing Hub has partnered with national older person’s charity Independent Age to produce a new printed information guide called ‘Winterwise - a guide to keeping well this winter’.
More than 325K printed guides are being distributed across Greater Manchester from mid-November 2022. The guide brings together key information for older people on cost of living support with messages focusing on three themes - ‘Stay warm’, ‘Stay safe’ and ‘Stay well’.
The guide builds on the Greater Manchester Pension Top Up campaign, also delivered with Independent Age, which encourages older residents to check they are getting all their financial entitlements, including support for energy costs. In Greater Manchester, £70 million goes unclaimed each year just in Pension Credit, with many older residents missing out on Attendance Allowance, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, and other entitlements which could make a massive difference to their weekly income.
With support from Talking About My Generation – the first older person’s led newsroom in the UK, a video has been produced with older residents in Greater Manchester to promote the guide. Please find the video in this YouTube link.
To get a physical copy for yourself, your loved ones or older people you are supporting, please look out for local distributions such as at libraries, pharmacies, warm hubs and more, or call Independent Age on 0800 319 6789. You could also call your local council’s dedicated cost of living phone line for more advice and support. If you’d like copies of the Winterwise guide (in multiples of 88 per box), please email jo.garsden@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk
Strategic Partnership Manager Greater Manchester job
The Centre for Ageing Better are hiring a new Strategic Partnership Manager, to be based in the Ageing Hub.
This is a pivotal role to support Ageing Better’s partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and help achieve the ambition of creating an Age-friendly movement across the country. The postholder will work with stakeholders in the city region, to gather insight as well as share resources that have been developed to national audiences, and build a legacy for our work together.
In addition, the role will support the development of the Age-friendly movement, promoting and encouraging more adoption of age-friendly approaches, with a focus on the role of Mayoral and Combined Authorities, and specific sectors, such as arts and heritage.
Greater Manchester celebrates International Day of Older Persons
In this blog, Rebecca Lines, Age-friendly Communities Learning Officer at Centre for Ageing Better, talks about how Age-friendly Communities work to celebrate contributions of older people and engage more older adults ahead of the winter months each International Day of Older Persons. This year, partners ran a campaign along the theme of 'the resilience and contribution of older women'.
The blog highlights some of the amazing work done in Greater Manchester to mark International Day of Older Persons, including by: Manchester Art Gallery, Salford Council, GMCA, Bolton Council, Trafford Council and Talking About My Generation. You can see Bolton' Council's 'Wall of Fame', which celebrated local older women's resilience, in the image above.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is aware that some people are not getting Pension Credit when they might be eligible for it.
For this reason, DWP has created a toolkit to help councils and other organisations raise awareness of Pension Credit and dispel some common misconceptions that might deter people from claiming it by highlighting that:
• People of State Pension age may be entitled to Pension Credit even though they may have modest savings, a retirement income or own their own home.
• An award of Pension Credit can provide access to a range of other 'passport' benefits such as help with housing costs, council tax, heating bills and for those aged 75 or over or a free TV licence.
There are currently 306 confirmed ‘Warm Spaces’ across Greater Manchester. These are free to access spaces where GM residents can be assured of finding a safe, warm, inclusive, and friendly environment in which to enjoy refreshments, social activity, information and advice, the company of other people and stay healthy and well as we head into winter. There is no definitive list of city-region wide warm spaces, however all partners are encouraged to sign up to this National Map: Find a Warm Welcome Space Today. Some localities are also producing their own interactive maps which are posted under their Warm Spaces link. Please see below for localities’ links:
*Please note that whilst Salford Councillors and their lead members have chosen not to take this approach, they have set up a number of free activities in their gateway centres and have lots of schemes in place across the city that are free for residents to attend.*
BOLD exhibition at AIR Gallery
BOLD is a group exhibition of 9 artists aged 50+ who were brought together by the Castlefield Gallery bOlder programme in 2019.
The exhibition showcases how each of these artist have grown in strength since taking part in the programme and presents a striking exhibition filled with eyecatching works, bold viewpoints and engaged perspectives.
The exhibition is running until 22 December at AIR Gallery in Altrincham - a contemporary gallery and exhibition space which showcases emerging and early career artists.
Greater Manchester Green Spaces Fund applications open
The GM Green Spaces Fund makes small and large grants available for community groups wanting to create new accessible spaces or improve existing ones in their local area, particularly where there is currently poor local access to good quality green space.
Following its successful first applications round earlier this year, round two of the £2.6m Greater Manchester Green Spaces Fund is now open to applications until Friday 27th January 2023, seeking community projects that will make a real difference to their local area.
Cost of living crisis Greater Manchester Grants Programme
Are you a voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE) organisation with an annual income between £50,000 and £250,000 based and working in one of the ten localities of Greater Manchester?
If your answer is YES then you may be eligible for one of thirty-six £5000 grants allocated across the ten localities.
Provided by the Eric Wright Charitable Trust, this funding will support the existing activities of medium-sized VCSE organisations in Greater Manchester. In these difficult times, the Trust want to help sustain organisations that support vulnerable communities of people that are struggling to cope with the worst of the cost of living crisis. The grant application deadline is 12 noon on Friday 13 January 2023.
Online event – Developing Climate Resilient Age-Friendly Cities and Communities – University of York
Wednesday 7 December, 10:00-12:00
Climate-related weather events (e.g., extreme heat, storms, and flooding) pose challenges for older people and where they live. We need to understand how best to support older adults to age-in-place within the context of a changing climate. This will require interventions to build climate resilient age-friendly cities and communities while recognising the positive contribution older adults can make to their community.
The aim of this workshop is to discuss the opportunities and challenges for policy and practice to achieve climate resilient age-friendly cities and communities. The workshop will bring together key actors to explore how cities and communities should respond to the climate emergency, while ensuring they meet the needs of an ageing population.
In-person events - Crafting with Grace in Longsight - Longsight Library
Tuesdays 13.30 - 15:00
Grace, an experienced crafter, has started a free craft group for adults every Tuesday at Longsight Library. Grace says, 'Everyone can craft. The folk that come to the group at the library all have different abilities and are at different levels and I'm here to help and guide. We start off with an A4 piece of paper and spend 3 or 4 weeks just experimenting. At the end of this period, we see what has worked and what hasn't, what we like or dislike'. One participant has used a glue gun for the first time and is learning how to make Christmas cards. Crafting with Grace, runs every Tuesday afternoon 1 .30 - 3pm at Longsight Library. Come along and join in!
In person programme - Elders Mondays at the Royal Exchange Theatre - The Royal Exchange
Want to meet new peopleand feel more creative?
Curious about theatre? Want to feel inspired? Then Elders Mondays Inspire at the Royal Exchange Theatre might be for you.
On the first and third Monday of the month (excluding Bank Holidays), Elders Inspire sessions 11:00-11.40am are a chance to chat with some of our Elders, take part in creative activity (don’t worry you don’t need to be an expert) and find out how you can get more involved.
Inspire sessions are free to attend and we may be able to help with travel costs through our Arts Pot.
If you have any resources relating to older people and age friendly 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
