Age Friendly

Introduction:
Setting up an Age Friendly City or County Programme is both an
exciting and daunting task. Getting started on any project is always
difficult but the keys to the success of most initiatives are courageous
leadership, a keen understanding of the process involved and
bucketfuls of enthusiasm. Setting up an Age Friendly Alliance is the
crucial step in the early development of an Age Friendly City or County
Programme. However, before you can take on the task of introducing
the concept and process of an age friendly programme to potential
members of the Age Friendly Alliance you wish to establish in your
county, you need to re-read through the general introduction on “Age
Friendliness”. You also need to read the message from Age Friendly
Ireland’s Chairman, Brendan Kenny and the interview with Conn Murray,
the first County Manager [now Chief Executive of Limerick] to embrace
the Age Friendly Cities and Counties programme. This will help you
understand the developments to date in Ireland. These introductory
pieces will sit with you throughout the entire process – and the further
along you are on the journey, the more you will glean from them. You
can also dip in and out of the case studies at the back of this handbook,
the interviews with Independent Chair of the Fingal Age Friendly
Alliance, Nora Owen, the Age Friendly Coordinator in Fingal, Eithne
Mallin and the Chair of the Older People’s Council in Kilkenny, Nora
Webster at different stages throughout the process to see how other
programmes were set up and developed.
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