Daniel O’Donnell who will launch the Donegal Age Friendly Strategy this Friday
The Donegal Age Friendly Strategy will be officially launched by international country singing star Daniel O’Donnell in the Regional Culture Centre in Letterkenny on Friday next, May 22 at 2pm.
This launch is an important milestone as it sets out a blueprint for how we will plan and develop communities in the coming years to ensure that Donegal is a truly great place in which to grow up and grow old.
Speakers on the day will include Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, Cllr John Campbell, Catherine McGuigan, Regional Programme Manager, Age Friendly Ireland and Donegal County Council’s Chief Executive Seamus Neely.
The strategy was developed following extensive consultation with older people across the county and aims to ensure that older people continue to be supported to play an active role in their communities.
This strategy will be the driver of collaboration by a number of organisations who will work together over the next five years with a focus on improving the quality of lives of older people in Donegal.
Older People themselves are central to this process. They are directly involved in this process through membership of Older Person’s Councils and Age Friendly Alliances.
This strategy is a direct response to the views gathered from older people over the age of 55 years in Donegal. The values, vision, mission and strategic goals that will drive the Donegal Age Friendly County project come directly from the views of older people, service providers and the organisations taking part in this project.
The model has been adopted from the World Health Organisation’s model of Age Friendly Cities and Communities Programme. This is part of the national roll out of Age Friendly Cities and Communities by Age Friendly Ireland.
Speaking earlier this week Donegal County Council Chief Executive and Chairman of the Donegal Age Friendly Alliance, Seamus Neely said positive ageing and healthy ageing were in everyone’s interest.
“The Donegal Age Friendly Strategy is one of the many ways that we, as a society, will realise the aims and aspirations of these two vital national documents. I am heartened to see the high level of involvement from the public, private, community and voluntary sectors in this initiative,” he said.
The Donegal Age Friendly Alliance, which consists of representatives from all stakeholders who have an influence and impact on the lives of older people have crafted a strategy that is far-reaching in nature with a number of new cross cutting actions that will be delivered by a number of organisations over the three year implementation period.
Many of the actions will have a very tangible impact on the county, while others, will be more subtly felt. This strategy is innovative in nature; it will see the implementation of national programmes that are new to the county such as the fall prevention programme and the Cúl Taca programme.
It also aims to create brand new initiatives that build on the local resources of the county such as enterprise mentoring and an age friendly business programme. Also included are actions that will make a substantial impact on the lives of older people such as Age Friendly Town Planning, Age Friendly Hospitals and increased participation by older people in social, cultural and sporting activities.
A critical component of the delivery of this strategy will be the creation of the County Donegal Older People’s Forum, which will be an extensive network of older people which will form part of the Donegal Public Participation Network.
Implementation of the twenty one actions outlined in this strategy will obviously have a positive impact on the lives of older people and the collaboration between agencies and service providers that will occur through the work of Donegal Age Friendly Alliance and Donegal Older Persons Forum will also have longer term effects on the overall vision of making Donegal an age friendly county.
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