Age Friendly

Information:
The meetings of the Older People’s Council ought to be held at least once a year
throughout the lifetime of the strategy. It’s an opportunity to update older people
in the city/county on achievements to date within the county. It’s crucial that older
people know what’s happening in their locality – what initiatives have started
and are planned. For example, the meeting can have details of all computer
classes throughout the county. People can also be informed about befriending
initiatives, new initiatives from the HSE, the Gardai, the local authority and any
other organisation relevant to the daily lives of older people. If older people see the
Older People’s Council as the place to keep up to date on what’s happening in their
area, the Older People’s Council will be stronger and more dynamic as a result.
It is crucial that the Age Friendly City or County Coordinator and the Executive
Committee of the Older People’s Council keep informed and collate all relevant
flyers and information sheets for distribution at Older People’s Council meetings.
Guest Speakers:
It’s also an opportunity to invite representatives of different groups to make a
presentation. Get a sense of what’s most important to the older people in your
area. For example, a talk from a community Garda might be something many
are interested in or a talk from a librarian about Information technology classes
offered in the local libraries. Older people’s groups which are already active or
developing in your county/city might like to introduce themselves to the Older
People’s Council. These can range from Physical Activity Leaders, trained by Age
& Opportunity to Crime Prevention Ambassadors trained by the Gardai. These
presentations offer older people an opportunity to keep up to date on what’s
happening and share this information with their peers.
At each event, it’s important that older people get a chance to air their views
about what’s working well and what isn’t so that this information can be fed back
to the Age Friendly Alliance as future goals. It’s essential to have one shared
meeting a year between the Older People’s Council and the Age Friendly Alliance
so there is a flow of information maintained between each group. This generally
happens at the AGM of the Older People’s Council.
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