CAP News Issue 4 - September 2007
Welcome to the fourth edition of CAP news, the newsletter which provides you with a round up of what has been happening within the Changing Ageing Partnership. In this issue we've highlighted some of the main events taking place during Age Awareness Week. We have included a copy of our Age Awareness Week poster. Inside you will find details of campaigning briefing sessions coming up in the autumn on page 5; an overview of the research into designing better homes on page 4; a profile of Grey Matters, a group who recently completed a series of Lobbying and Advocacy workshops, on page 6-7 and a brief update on the Age Equality Policy Forums on page 8. Age Awareness Week is happening next month 1st – 5th October. The CAP partners have a range of events planned to celebrate the week. In addition, many older peoples groups have organised events in their local area to coincide with the week.
Age Awareness Week highlights - CAP partner activities
What: Launch event
When: Monday 1st October
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Where: Queen's Film Theatre, BELFAST
The launch will be followed by a showing of the film Calendar Girls at 6.30pm. If you would like to attend this event, please contact James Knox on 028 9024 5729 or email jknox@ageconcernni.org
What: 'Goods, Facilities and Services: An opportunity to learn' conference
When: Tuesday 2nd October
Time: All day event
Where: Radisson SAS, Gasworks, BELFAST
Providers of goods, facilities and services can still discriminate on the basis of a person's age. This conference aims to highlight the key issues and offer some solutions. If you would like to attend this event, please contact James Knox on 028 9024 5729 or email jknox@ageconcernni.org
What: Healthy ageing in people aged over 90 years old
When: Wednesday 3rd October
Time: 12.15 pm – 2.30 pm
Where: Institute of Governance, 63 University Road, BELFAST
Dr Maeve Rea, Public Health Medicine & Primary Care, Queen's will focus on the theme of healthy ageing in people aged over 90 years old.If you would like to attend this event, please contact Una Lynch on 028 9097 3650 or email u.lynch@qub.ac.uk
What: Lobbying: A Practical IntroductoryWorkshop
When: Thursday 4th October
Time: 10:00 am – 3:30 pm
Where: Farset International, BELFAST
This one day workshop is an introduction to the concept of lobbying, using your influence, skills and knowledge to improve the way government and organisations address the needs of older people. If you would like to attend this event, please contact Attracta Cosgrove on 028 9032 9718 or email attracta.cosgrove@wea-ni.com
What: Children's perspective of older people seminar
When: Friday 5th October
Time: 10.00 am – 1:00 pm
Where: Senate Room, Queen's University Belfast
This event will focus on a presentation of research undertaken by Queen's University into children's perceptions of older people. If you would like to attend this event, please contact Una Lynch on 028 9097 3650 or email u.lynch@qub.ac.uk
What: Celebration of the achievements of older people's forums seminar
When: Friday 5th October
Time: 10:00 am – 1.00 pm
Where: The Comfort Inn Hotel, ANTRIM
This event aims to acknowledge the value that older people's groups and forums have within their own communities and to celebrate and showcase the work of some of the older people's groups and forums who have been supported by Help the Aged over the last year. If you would like to attend this event, please contact Leona Reid on 028 9023 0666 or email leona.reid@helptheaged.org.uk.
This is just a taste of what will be happening during Age Awareness Week. For a full listing of all the events, please go to the CAP website at www.changingageing.org
AGE AWARENESS WEEK
Local events
In the last two issues of CAP news we encouraged groups to apply for an Age Awareness Week grant to organise an event in their area. Congratulations to:
- Age Concern Bangor
- Age Concern Beragh
- Age Concern Coleraine
- Age Concern Drumquin
- Age Concern Newcastle and District
- Age Concern Park
- Ballinamallard Friday Club
- Ballymena Club for the hard of Hearing
- Ballymena Evergreen Club
- Carrickmore Thursday Club
- East Belfast & Castlereagh Age Concern
- Edgar Boyds Tenants Association
- Fermanagh Volunteer Bureau
- Golden Millennium Club Craigavon
- Hazelbank Social Club
- Indian Senior Citizen Club
- Killycurragh Regeneration Group
- Newry and Mourne Senior Citizens Consortium
- Rasharkins Women's Group
- Sew and Sew
- Stranocum FriendshipClub
- The HEART Project
- Three Spires Craft Club
- Voluntary Services Belfast
- Wah Hep Community Association 50+Club
- Young at Heart Men's Club Lurgan
Each of these groups are organising an event for older people in their local communities to celebrate Age Awareness Week. It's not too late to organise an event, however the grants scheme is now closed until next year. Let us know if you organise an event by contacting James Knox on 028 90245 729 or emailing jknox@ageconcernni.org
Age celebrated in film
Throughout Age Awareness Week, the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast will be showing a number of films which challenge the stereotypes and clichés of older age which currently pervade our society. The films show that older people are individuals who play a variety of complex roles within their lives and who demand to be respected.
Monday 1st October 6.30pm - CALENDAR GIRLS
'A delight, full of great one liners, quirky character-based comedy and two excellent lead performances from Mirren and Walters.' BBC
Calendar Girls is based on the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for leukemia research under the auspices of the Women's Institute. It was a box office phenomenon at the Queens Film Theatre in 2003.
Tuesday 2nd October 6.30pm - BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Buena Vista Social Club documents how Ry Cooder brought together legendary Cuban musicians to record an album, also called Buena Vista Social Club, and to perform a concert in Carnegie Hall. Although they are geographically close, travel between Cuba and the United States is restricted due to the political tension between the two countries, so many of the artists were travelling there for the first time. The film shows their reactions to this experience and includes footage of the resultant sell-out concert and interviews with each of the main performers. It made the musicians such as Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Rubén González, some of them already in their nineties, into international stars.
Wednesday 3rd October 6.30pm - ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
After the death of her beloved teenage son in an accident, Roth leaves Madrid for Barcelona to cope with her grief, hook up with old friends, and, just maybe, contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. As she gradually regains the will to live through her involvement with the lives of others including her son‘s favourite stage diva
Paredes, Almodóvar piles on the coincidences, contrivances and twists so that the film succeeds best as a beautifully crafted, semi-ironic melodrama.
Thursday 4th October 6.30pm - THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
The Company of Strangers (also known as Strangers in Good Company) is a Canadian film, released in 1990. It depicts eight women on a bus tour who are stranded at an isolated cottage when the bus breaks down. Created in a genre defined as semi-documentary/semi-fiction, the film is not tightly scripted; the writers wrote a basic story outline but allowed the eight women to improvise their dialogue. Each of the women told stories from her own life. A major theme of the film is how the women each face ageing and mortality in their own way and find the courage together to persevere.
RESEARCH – Queen's University, Belfast
Better sheltered housing for the ageing population in Northern Ireland
The study
Dr. Karim Hadjri at the School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering has been investigating how sheltered housing can be designed to better meet the needs of current and future residents. The study aims to bridge the gap between users and designers in order to deliver more accessible, flexible, comfortable and safer homes. The study will examine the living requirements of older residents and identify design shortcomings. It is hoped that by identifying design shortcomings, more suitable housing types can be developed in the future.
Twenty six sheltered housing complexes built and run by housing associations in the Belfast area came under the spotlight. Residents were interviewed and an environmental evaluation of each building was undertaken to establish the building's suitability in terms of physical and cognitive ease. Cognitive ease refers to the ease with which people are able to familiarise and orientate themselves with an area of use.
Initial findings
Interviews with residents produced the following findings:-
- There was overall satisfaction with size and layouts of circulation areas such as entrance halls and corridors but less with the common rooms, shared kitchen, and shared bathrooms.
- The interviewees were more satisfied with their private accommodation while kitchen and storage spaces wereless satisfactory due to accessibility and ease of use.
- Issues relating to the location of cupboards, ease of use of fixtures and fittings and furniture were raised.
- There was also some dissatisfaction with heating.
The environmental evaluations of each building examined issues relating to accessibility, adaptability, personalisation and safety. Preliminary findings indicate that:-
- Four buildings have low scores in their privacy and ability to support people to orientate themselves to their surroundings.
- The buildings scored highly when assessed in terms of their contribution to the sense of security and well being amongst residents, and their ability to put their own imprint on the area through furniture, paintings and ornaments.
- Feedback from the interviews pointed at the need to improve user satisfaction through better accessibility, ease of use and more comfort. It appears that a further investigation of aspects affecting comfort as perceived by the residents but also as surveyed during the environmental evaluations and their correlation is needed.
2008 DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
A seminar outlining this research will take place on 22nd May 2008. For further information on the study, please contact Una Lynch (CAP Research Manager) on 028 9097 3650 or email u.lynch@qub.ac.uk. An extensive programme of research seminars has been developed. See the CAP website at www.changingageing.org to find out more.
CAPACITY BUILDING AND COMMUNICATION - Help the Aged
Find out how your group can campaign about issues important to you Would you like to find out about campaigning and lobbying to address the issues important to you and to where you live? It can be a simple thing such as writing a letter to a councillor about the street lighting in your area or a larger campaign on an issue that affects all older people.
This autumn sees the launch of five briefing sessions on how to campaign and lobby. People can make a change or a difference and we are here to give you the right tools to do just that. The first briefing session will take place in Ballynahinch on 15th November. Each of the CAP partners will give their advice on how to approach campaigning. You will also have the opportunity to find out about the policies affecting older people that Help the Aged and Age Concern are currently working on. You will meet with people who have the same issues as you do and share ideas on how to take these forward. Lunch and travel expenses will be provided.
If you would like more information on the briefing sessions, please contact Leona or Stephanie 028 9023 0666 or email leona.reid@helptheaged.org.uk or stephanie.campbell@helptheaged.org.uk
TRAINING – Workers Educational Association
Grey Matters make their voice heard
Grey Matters, a group made up of representatives from the Belfast East Seniors Forum, the South Belfast Lifestyle Forum and the Castlereagh Lifestyle Forum recently completed a numberof Lobbying and Advocacy Skills workshops delivered by the Workers Educational Association. The workshops aimed to develop older people’s skills and confidence and in so doing, enable their voices to be heard on issues that affect them.
Individuals learnt how to plan and prepare for meetings with decision makers and how to make presentations to decision makers. The sessions were very hands on giving participants practicalexperience in presenting their case to a variety of audiences.
One of the hoped for outcomes of CAP is to build a critical mass of older people working in the community to shape and influence issues essential to achieving a better quality of life for all older people. Grey Matters' participation in the lobbying workshops has had very positive outcomes for older people both on a personal basis and on a group basis.
"I feel so much more confident meeting and speaking to decision makers now"
(Margaret Kennedy, South Belfast Lifestyle Forum)
"I thoroughly enjoyed the workshops and feel I can assert myself now"
(Gerry Potts, Castlereagh Lifestyle Forum)
"These workshops have given me the confidence and expertise to speak to people who make decisions about older people's lives. The invaluable experience I have gained through attending these workshops will be brought back to the Belfast East Seniors Forum and all the other older people's groups we are in touch with."
(Beryl Carson, Belfast East Seniors Forum)
Meetings with various bodies including the Consumer Council and South and East Belfast Health & Social Services Trust, have resulted in service information leaflets being planned and produced and gaps in service provision in terms of older people being recognised. This is only the start of an ongoing relationship which will offer older people increased opportunities to have their voice heard.
Interested in finding out more about the free workshops CAP offers?
We have included a copy of the new brochure which outlines all the free workshops available to individuals aged 50 and over. These workshops focus on developing confidence and practising advocacy skills are available throught out the year. Further information on these workshops can be obtained by contacting Attracta Cosgrove on 028 9032 9718 or emailing attracta.cosgrove@wea-ni.com
AGE EQUALITY POLICY FORUMS UPDATE - Age Concern Northern Ireland
The Northern and Central Forums have met and will be meeting again in the autumn. In August five older person's representatives were identified. Further information on the forums can be obtained by contacting James Knox on 028 9024 5729 or emailing jknox@ageconcernni.org
GET INVOLVED - CAP contacts
Would your group be interested in developing its capacity to create a voice for older people in your local community? If so, contact Stephanie Campbell on 028 9023 0666 or email stephanie.campbell@helptheaged.org.uk Do you want to be able to get your voice heard and influence decision makers but are unsure how to go about it? The CAP programme offers Lobbying Workshops to groups who want to obtain the skills and knowledge needed to effect change. Find out more by contacting Attracta Cosgrove on 028 9032 9718 or email attracta.cosgrove@wea-ni.com
In touch with CAP
You have been selected to receive CAP news as the representative of a group which the CAP Programme partners felt might be interested in CAP activities. To be removed from this mailing list or to update the contact details for your group, please contact Leona Reid on 028 9023 0666 or email leona.reid@helptheaged.org.uk
You can now download copies of CAP news from the CAP website at www.changingageing.org
Your opinion
Any comments you have on CAP news are very welcome. We would like to know if we are writing it in a style that you find readable and if the information we provide is useful. Please feel free to contact Leona Reid on 028 9023 0666 or email leona.reid@helptheaged.org.uk with your comments. We look forward to receiving them.