Age-Friendly Futures: Learning from Ambition for Ageing so far

In December 2018, over 50 Ambition for Ageing (AfA) contractors, old and new came together to network and share learning as the programme’s focus shifts from delivery to sustainability and legacy.

This event summary page forms a portfolio of resources for others working on the age-friendly community agenda.

Click on a section to go directly to it or scroll down the page to view all that is available:

Workshops held during the event.
Roundtable 1: Impact - practical examples of changes the programme has made in neighbourhoods
Roundtable 2: Sustainability - ideas and learning on how to ensure the impact the programme is having is sustainable.
Presentations given during the event.
Copies of informational posters displayed during the event

Workshops

During the morning of the event, attendees were invited to attend a number of workshops hosted by those working on the Ambition for Ageing project to allow for shared learning. You can download copies of their presentations by clicking on the image to the left of each description.

	-	Micro-funding and sustainability [Notes from Workshop]. Delivered by our Rochdale Local Delivery Lead, looking to the future sustainability of the projects funded by small investments, this workshop focused on funding opportunities for community activity.

		Practical tools for asset-based and co-designed working. This interactive workshop focused on learning from our Bolton Local Delivery Lead, Bolton CVS and Age UK Bolton shared their practical tips for asset-based and co-designed working based on community projects delivered as part of Ambition for Ageing.

	-	Working with businesses to create age-friendly communities. This workshop was delivered in partnership by AfA's local delivery leads in Bury and Wigan. They shared stories of two different projects and what they learned about successfully engaging businesses in the local age-friendly agenda.

	-	Breaking Down barriers. This workshop was delivered by Action on Hearing Loss who run the AfA community navigator service for people over 50 with recent hearing loss. They shared their specialist knowledge on how to ensure older people with hearing loss aren't excluded and the challenges they have faced.

	-	Running a festival. This workshop was delivered by 4CT and one of their partners in the 2018 Ambition for Ageing Festival of Ageing, Wigan Athletic. They spoke about their experience delivering the festival, which brought together over 300 small and large scale events across GM, and what you need to consider when planning your own festival.

		Engaging marginalised communities. This workshop was delivered by staff and volunteers from AfA's Oldham Local Delivery Lead. They shared their learning about how they've adapted their approach to encourage older people from a range of backgrounds to get involved. Due to the interactive nature of the workshop, this session did not have a supporting presentation.

Roundtable 1: Impact

The Ambition for Ageing Programme, through our Local Delivery leads and Scaled Programmes has already had a huge impact on the neighborhoods we are working in.

This activity, which took place during the afternoon of Age-Friendly Futures asked attends to give examples of what impact the programme was having. What had been changed in their neighbourhood as a result of their work and what was in place that wasn’t there before.

Examples ranged from individual projects to increasing older people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, increasing people’s confidence to upskilling community members to apply for external funding.

Download the document for a full list of all examples.

Roundtable 2: Sustainability

The second roundtable looked at those areas of impact that were at risk of being lost or reduced, and potential solutions to mitigating the risk.

A summary is provided below and the full document is available here.

A range of collaborative working can increase the chances of sustainability.
Groups need additional skills to secure further funding
Broadening the number of people who have a stake/commitment in the activity
Older people volunteering is crucial to sustainability.
Place-based/community level working is a high priority and creates an environment that could support the continuation of age-friendly activities
Revenue Raising
It is important to demonstrate impact and share learning.
Greater Manchester 'strategic/coordinated approach' / Policy
Awareness Raising
Supporting Older People
Social Prescribing
Universities
Retaining communications channels is important to ensuring there is sustained activity
Data

Presentations

During the day, a number of key people were invited to speak about building age-friendly communities. You can download copies of their presentations by clicking on the image to the left of each description.

	-	The challenge of creating age-friendly communities. Presented by Prof Chris Phillipson, Co-Director of Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), this presentation focuses on the challenges of creating age-friendly communities and how we should respond to these challenges.

	-	Co-research for resident-led (Age-Friendly) action plans. Presented by Prof Stefan White from Manchester School of Architecture, this presentation focused on how Manchester Local Delivery Lead uses co-research to create resident-led action plans and how this contributed towards building age-friendly communities.

	-	Housing providers value of place based partnerships. Cathy Ayrton, Naturally Occurring Retirement Community Project Officer at Southway Housing Trust spoke about the value of partnerships at a place based level and the role that housing can play in building age-friendly communities.

		An Age-Friendly Greater Manchester. Paul McGarry, Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub spoke about how the research form the Ambition for Ageing programme has fed into Greater Manchester’s approached to ageing and the legacy the programme will have. As this presentation was spoken, there is no accompanying PowerPoint document.

		A national perspective of looking forward. Presented by Sophy Proctor, Head of Funding at the National Lottery Community Fund, this presentation gave attendees the opportunity to find out more. As this presentation was spoken, there is no accompanying PowerPoint document.

Posters

The following informational posters, designed by attendees were displayed at the venue during the event. Click on the posters to make them larger and if you would like to borrow the full size versions (A1), please contact the Ambition for Ageing staff team at GMCVO.