CAP News Issue 2 - February 2007
Welcome to the second edition of CAP News
The Changing Ageing Partnership (CAP) brings together Age Concern Northern Ireland, Help the Aged, Queen’s University of Belfast and the Workers’ Educational Association and is funded by Atlantic Philanthropies. CAP’s vision is of a strong, informed voice capable of challenging attitudes and approaches to ageing.
Three times a year CAP News will bring you all the latest news from the CAP programme and keep you up to date on how you can get involved.
I hope you enjoy CAP News.
SPRING – SUMMER 2007: TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS
CAP is running a range of FREE programmes for Spring – Summer 2007 to support older people who are or would like to become actively involved in advocating for change.
- Lobbying Workshops
- Media Workshops
- IT Courses
- Facilitative Leadership (3-day Course)
- Principled Negotiation Skills (3-day Course)
All of these courses are free, and there is no limitation to the number of courses you can sign up to. Courses can also be tailored to meet the needs of your group.
For further course information on any of these courses, please contact:
Attracta Cosgrove at the offices of WEA, 1-3 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast, BT9 6AW.
Tel: 028 9032 9718 or email Attracta.Cosgrove@wea-ni.com
ADDRESSING LOCAL ISSUES
Would you like the Changing Ageing Partnership to help your group address a local issue?
The CAP Programme has been created to support your group in the development process of a campaign that is important to you. The programme provides various sources of guidance, aiming to help highlight the issues that you want heard.
CAP can not only help your campaign strategy development but can help your group through development support, e.g. funding strategy planning. We can even arrange for your group to get basic IT classes to improve your computer knowledge.
Help the Aged Development Officer Stephanie Campbell is currently working with The Relatives Association Northern Ireland through the CAP Programme.
“I am working with the Relatives Association N.I to help further their aims as an organisation. CAP is offering them a variety of interesting ways to achieve this.
We are supporting the Relatives Association N.I in creating a poster campaign for care staff within residential homes. CAP is also assisting them in developing a funding strategy which will hopefully benefit their abilities and resources as a collective.
This voluntary organisation plays an important role in supporting either collectively or individually, relatives and residents in care across Northern Ireland. It represents relatives’ issues with a range of statutory agencies, public representatives and others who provide or fund care. They aim to ensure that relatives are actively involved in decisions which affect their lives.
CAP wants to ensure that the Relatives Association N.I. continues its wonderful work and benefits more relatives who have loved ones in care, by aiding them to increasing their membership further and raise their profile across Northern Ireland”.
Further details for this charity can be obtained by ringing 028 2563 9700 or by emailing relatives@btopenworld.com.
Please take advantage of this great opportunity to raise the issues that are important to your group.
Contact Stephanie Campbell, Help the Aged Development Officer, for further information on 028 9023 0666 or 07734 553605.
Queen’s University – Spotlight on what one Research Project is looking at.
In the last issue of CAP news the Institute of Governance announced that it has three research students working on three-year projects to examine crime, fear of crime and economic rights of older people. The students joined the Institute from the Schools of Law; Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work; and Politics, International Studies and Philosophy.
Two of the students took the opportunity to talk about their work on the CAP project in Bristol University where members of the Law Faculty were impressed by this research programme aimed at increasing awareness and changing attitudes towards older people in Northern Ireland. One of their research projects is spotlighted here.
This research project intends to help us understand the risks of physical harm to older people. The research will be divided into two parts. The first concerns what causes physical harm to older people, such as falls, accidents, inadequate heating, lack of food. Quantitative research will be carried out involving examining hospital records, mortality rates, crime rates and police records. Results will be compared and discussed in order to answer the question: ‘Are physical harms happening at a much higher rate than victimisation rates among older people?’
The second part of the research will study the rate of crime committed against older people. The objective is to discover where older people place risk of physical social harms compared with perceived risk of crime. Qualitative information will be obtained through interviews. Finally, representation by the media of crimes against older people will be looked at by analysing recent newspapers. The research aims to explain how older people define their situation and vulnerability to crime in terms of their social position and social surroundings.
AGE EQUALITY POLICY FORUM
Age Concern Northern Ireland is making huge strides in developing three Age Equality Policy Forums, a Central Forum (based in Belfast), a Northern Forum (based in Coleraine) and a Southern Forum (based in Newry and Newcastle).
The Central Forum will have responsibility for identifying and benchmarking where Northern Ireland actually is now with Age Equality and to pilot and assess programmes on equality and social inclusion of older people. The forum will agree what the most appropriate indicators are and will establish a baseline to measure from. It will oversee the development of age awareness training and agreement will be reached on what the training will consist of.
The Northern and Southern Forums will help to support the work of the Central Forum. They will act as a sounding board for initiatives developed by the Central Forum, they will communicate local responses to the Central Forum and they will also test performance indicators and age awareness training at the local level.
Essentially all three Forums, when established and working collaboratively, will promote older people’s issues and ‘joined up’ working practice leading to organisations developing age neutral policies and procedures. Terms of reference and membership of the Forums are currently being agreed as well as a date for the first meeting of each Forum.
For more information contact: James Knox, Age Concern Northern Ireland 028 9024 5729
AGE AWARENESS WEEK 2007
Following on from the success of the first ever Age Awareness Week (AAW) in October 2006 we are now in the beginnings of the development of the agenda and plans for the 2007 Age Awareness Week.
2007 has been designated by the European Union as the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. There are four themes within the European Year. We have decided to focus our attention on one of those – the theme of Respect.
Respect
“Promoting a more cohesive society”.
This year we hope to extend Age Awareness Week right across Northern Ireland and will be inviting groups and forums to organise local events. In order to help groups organise an event we will have ten small grants to give out to groups. More details to follow soon.
More news on Age Awareness Week and how you and your group can get involved will follow throughout the year and in subsequent issues of CAP News.
CAP WEBSITE
The dedicated Changing Ageing Partnership website is due to launch in March 2007. The website will include all the latest information on the CAP programme and information on how you can get involved. It will also be a space to showcase the positive impact that the programme is having and we will be keen to hear your stories of how involvement in the programme has benefited your group to become older, louder and stronger.
Watch out for the new website at: www.changingageing.org
IN TOUCH WITH CAP
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To be removed from this mailing list, or to update the contact details for your group as they have appeared on this mailing, please contact Help the Aged on:
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