Helping Sunderland to age well

Following the UN International Day of Older Persons (IDOP), which took place on 1 October, the annual conference was held this week to bring the ambassadors together.

The theme for this year's IDOP is 'Know Our Place: Celebrating ageing in our community's past, present, and future.'

The theme encourages people to come together across age groups to discover their community's past and commit to making changes to help make it a better place to age.

More than 120 delegates attended the event held at City Hall, where they heard from guest speakers, took part in an intergeneration session with Sandhill Academy, and enjoyed an active session with Active Families.

During the event the Sunderland Falls Prevention Strategy was officially launched, which has been developed through the partnership between the local authority, health, community, and voluntary agencies in the city.

A fall can be a devastating event for older people and the strategy sets out a vision that is designed to both prevent and reduce the incidence of falls for residents in the city.

Sunderland's Ageing Well Ambassadors Programme sees volunteers aged 50+ help to raise awareness and share age friendly messages to ensure that people's voices are heard in communities across the city as they get older.

The ambassadors act as the voice of Sunderland's older residents, informing services and investment in the city to ensure residents of all ages lead fulfilling lives.

Councillor Kelly Chequer, Portfolio Holder for Healthy City at Sunderland City Council, said: "Our vision is that 'everyone in Sunderland will have healthy, happy lives, with no-one left behind', but we understand that there can be unique needs that come with ageing, and we want to make sure that Sunderland's older residents are being heard and supported.

"Since we launched Sunderland's Ageing Well Ambassadors Programme two years ago it has grown from 30 ambassadors to 150, and they have helped us to better communicate with older people, sharing the messages and information within their workplace, sports teams, places of worship, or even with family, friends, and neighbours.

"I would encourage anyone 50+ who is active in the community to think about signing up to be an ambassador to make sure older people feel valued and connected to their communities."

Graham King, Director of Adult Services at Sunderland City Council and Chair of the Ageing well delivery board said: "An age-friendly community is one that ensures we all have a place in society as we age, where we are respected and included, and are able to live a good later life where we are.

"Our Ambassadors are acting as the voice of Sunderland's ageing residents, helping us as partners to reach out to the residents we cannot always reach and helping us to help them feel seen and supported."

For more information or to sign up to be an Ageing Well Ambassador, contact: Jackie.nixon@sunderland.gov.uk