News from VOP
April 2013
VOP Wythenshawe and North Manchester network meetings
On the 10th and 11th of April, VOP will be facilitating two VOP network meetings, one in Wythenshawe (10th April) and one in the North of the city (11th April). The VOP networks are about making sure services address the needs of older people locally and adapting services to reflect this. In December 2012 and January 2013 we held planning meetings in each area and from this a number of actions have been identified for work with older people. We are now taking this action forward to continue improving the quality of life for older people in the city.
Age-friendly Manchester Design Forum
On 24 April, the Age-friendly Manchester Design Forum will be meeting at Manchester Metropolitan University . This is the first meeting of the forum which will meet twice a year. It involves people in design fields from across Manchester and the UK to scrutinise and guide our work on age-friendly design. The forum is an exciting chance to be involved in something that's unique in this country. For more details contact Patrick in the VOP team, email p.hanfling@manchester.gov.uk
March 2013
Age-friendly Manchester (AFM) Leadership Group
The first meeting of this new group, which will bring together Councillors, older people, researchers and other agencies, to lead the next phase of the AFM programme, will have its first meeting in June. For more information contact Paul McGarry on 0161 234 3503 or p.mcgarry@manchester.gov.uk
February 2013
MICRA and Cities@Manchester Joint Seminar - Population Ageing and the Future of Cities: Designing Age-Friendly Environments
26 February 2013, 2.00 - 4.00pm (lunch from 1pm)
Venue: G306B Jean McFarlane Building, University of Manchester
Speakers:
Stefan White, Senior Lecturer, Manchester School of Architecture (University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University)
Paul McGarry, Senior Strategy Manager, Valuing Older People, Public Health Manchester
Professor Liesbeth De Donder, Professor in Adult Educational Sciences, Brussels Free University
Chair: Professor Chris Phillipson, Sociology and Social Gerontology, University of Manchester
Age-friendly Wythenshawe workshop: Friday 1 February
A range of stakeholders from across Wythenshawe are coming together on 1st February to develop their next steps in implementing the Age-friendly Wythenshawe Charter. Following a period of consultation with local older people, workshop participants - who come from the Voluntary Sector, local Housing Providers, the Regeneration team, Greater Manchester Police and the NHS - will be setting priorities and working out how they can start to work together to make Wythenshawe more age-friendly. For more information, or to get involved, contact Sally Chandler at the VOP team: s.chandler@manchester.gov.uk
January 2013
Culture Champions Review published
Valuing Older People's development of the Cultural Offer for Older People has seen considerable success over the past 9 years and is currently being reviewed in terms of both outcomes for older people and impact on the city's large arts and heritage organisations. Fifteen of the major cultural provider organisations have been working collaboratively to improve access to culture and creativity for those older people in the city who do not access the many opportunities the city has to offer. One way they have reached out into the heart of Manchester's communities is by developing a Culture Champions scheme. A full report capturing the outcomes of the first year of the scheme is now available from the VOP Cultural Offer Manager: sherry.dewynter@allaboutaudiences.com. An Executive Summary of the review of the wider programme will be available in March.
RSVP Manchester
The Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme Manchester (RSVP) supports older people to volunteer and lead their own activities. Currently older volunteers run various regular activities across the community, including creative writing groups, computer lessons, a film club and a walkers group. There are also plans in place to establish a craft club and schools mentoring schemes.
There have recently been some changes at RSVP Manchester. Anna Richmond has left the project to take up an exciting new role in Brighton. Rebecca Parsons and Ruqia Allana have recently joined RSVP and will now be taking the project forward. They would love to hear from anyone who wants to start or join a project, or find out more about RSVP.
Rebecca Parsons: email RParsons@csv.org.uk or phone 07914 350 620
Ruqia Allana: email RAllana@csv.org.uk or phone 07914 350 602
Working with the World Health Organisation (WHO)
Manchester is currently supporting the WHO's development of core age-related indicators for its Age-Friendly Cities programme. Manchester will be piloting the viability and validity of these indicators from mid-January 2013 onwards and feeding back its recommendations to the WHO in March 2013.
Age-friendly Manchester Design Group
The Age-friendly Manchester Design Steering Group has now been formalised with its vision, objectives and action plan drafted. The group is made up of Council Officers and University specialists in design. A wider Age-friendly Design Forum will meet twice a year to guide the work and the action plan identifies short, medium and long-term plans. For more information on the Design Group contact Patrick Hanfling, email p.hanfling@manchester.gov.uk, phone 0161 234 4188.
Manchester hosts International Population Ageing Network Meeting
Manchester recently hosted a meeting of leading international academic colleagues who visited to hear about work being carried out in the city on Age-friendly Cities. Visitors from the Population Ageing and Urbanisation Network heard presentations from the VOP Team, Manchester School of Architecture and Southway Housing's Old Moat Age-friendly Community Project, and further talks on urban studies, inclusive urban design and Dublin's Age-friendly City Initiative. This International Network shares best practice to further development in Age-friendly strategy and the development of projects in all of the members' cities.
Intergenerational work
The focus of Intergenerational Practice in the Age-friendly Manchester programme is currently being refreshed. This will be reported to the Communities Overview and Scrutiny meeting in March with key themes being:
- A partnership with the Valuing Young People Team. This will involve the Valuing Older People Board and new Manchester Youth Council working together.
- Delivering the VOP Training programme on Intergenerational Practice for Council staff and partner organisations to ensure best practice is carried out in this field
- Work in partnership with other organisations to develop funding bids for long-term Intergenerational work based around Council priorities and Age-friendly Manchester themes
VOP Board
The VOP Board has produced its 2012 annual report which will be available in February. There will be a membership drive in 2013 for new members. Regarding intergenerational work, the Board is working towards a productive relationship with the new Manchester Youth Council. The Board met on 24 January to discuss the Draft Manchester Health and Wellbeing Strategy and received a presentation from Southway Housing showing findings from the Age-friendly Project currently underway.
December 2012
My Generation Christmas Twister returns
Sunday 9 December 2012 from 6.00pm
Band on the Wall, Swan Street Manchester
My Generations returns to our favourite venue with our second Christmas Twister. Enjoy the coolest over 50s night out in Manchester and rediscover the soundtracks of your youth with DJs Howard and Baz playing a classic mix from across the decades including some of your Christmas Party favourites. As always we'll be bringing you a great live band that are sure to get the party mood rocking. Festivities begin at 6pm with the chance to meet friends old and new in the Picture House, then the evening picks up the pace at 7.30pm in the main venue keeping the party mood in full swing till midnight. For more information contact Tracey Annette on 0161 234 4299 or t.annette@manchester.gov.uk or Tim Chatterton on 0161 830 3975 or visit www.facebook.com/mygenerationatbandonthewall
November 2012
Ruth Finkelstein, Director of Age-Friendly New York meets the VOP team On Tuesday 6th November Ruth Finkelstein, Director of Age-Friendly New York met with members of the VOP team to find out more about some of the similarities between Age-Friendly Manchester and New York . Describing the structure of the VOP team to Ruth, the VOP team also had the chance to learn more about the organisation and structure of the age-friendly programme in New York directly from Ruth. Ruth Finkelstein and the VOP team in Manchester have agreed to continue exchanging thoughts, experiences and ideas around their programmes to support these two similar initiatives from across the Atlantic.
VOP Board and team report to Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee
On 14th November, members of the VOP team and VOP Board will be presenting a report to the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The report gives Members an update on the development of the Age-friendly Manchester programme and on a series of issues including transport for older people, intergenerational practice, welfare reform and housing. For more information contact: Paul McGarry, Senior Strategy Manager: p.mcgarry@manchester.gov.uk or telephone: 0161 234 3503
Developing Age-Friendly Cities: Planning Urban Environments
On Monday 5th November, as part of the 10th Annual Festival of Social Science, Keele University in collaboration with VOP hosted a free one-day seminar on Developing 'Age-Friendly' Cities and planning urban environments in Manchester Town Hall . With presentations from Ruth Finkelstein (Director of 'Age-friendly New York'), Professor Robin Means (President of the British Society of Gerontology) and members of the Newcastle Quality of Life Partnership, the event brought together a range of practitioners and researchers to explore the latest initiatives and thinking behind the design and planning of age-friendly urban environments in the UK and abroad. Details about the event, including presentations will be available on the VOP website shortly.
VOP review Cultural Offer for Older People
It is nearly nine years since Manchester 's cultural organisations offered a first series of taster sessions to older Manchester residents as part of the annual Full of Life Festival. Nine years on, 15 of the city's major cultural and heritage organisations have attracted over £500k investment in new projects with older people and collaboratively provide cultural 'tours' for groups of older people. In order to document the incredible journey that all the members of the VOP Cultural Offer working group have taken together, VOP will be publishing a report in early December that reviews this successful programme of work. For more information contact Sally Chandler, Programme Manager: s.chandler@manchester.gov.uk or telephone 0161 234 3513.