Age Friendly

Foreword, Brendan Kenny,
Chair, Age Friendly Ireland
and Assistant Chief Executive, Dublin City Council
and implement a successful Age Friendly
Programme. Indeed in developing its own Age
Friendly Programme Dublin City has learned
much from those frontrunner lead counties.
The Handbook
As many of you will know, the hosting of
the national Age Friendly Cities & Counties
Programme moved to a new organisation,
Age Friendly Ireland, established in early 2014.
Dublin City Council, on behalf of the Local
Government sector, is delighted to be hosting
this national programme office.
Since Louth launched the first county wide
Age Friendly Programme in 2009 many of
the frontrunner counties have made very
considerable progress in implementing age
friendly strategies. Together these frontrunner
counties have developed a practical, yet
effective blueprint for how best to establish
In Ireland, the Age Friendly Cities and Counties
Programme expanded rapidly during 2014.
Sharing of practice and learnings across the
now national network of Age Friendly Cities
& Counties will therefore be of increasing
relevance moving forward and in supporting
those who are at the early stages in adopting
the Age Friendly Programme. We are therefore
very pleased to summarise and share, as part
of this Handbook, what has been learned in
respect of successfully setting up, designing
and implementing an Age Friendly Programme.
The Handbook is written primarily to provide
very practical guidance and to take the Age
Friendly Alliances through the key stages
involved in setting up and running an Age
Friendly Programme. Its development has
been informed through a case study process
involving a number of the frontrunner Age
Friendly Counties and with a further series of
interviews involving a sample of Age Friendly
Alliance members and the Local Authority
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