Older People's Week Big Skills Share success
Tuesday 9 October 2012
This year's Older People's week saw young and old come together sharing skills and laughter along the way.
The council's Youth Democracy Project held an art class and a cookery class, which was enjoyed by all who attended.
Jennie Redshaw from the council's Youth Democracy Project said; "The intergenerational events went really well. We attracted a lot of new older and younger people to our activities and I'm hopeful we'll see them again in our future Tea Dance events - including our next Tea Dance at Warwick Road United Reformed Church in the city centre on 20 October 2pm - 4pm, costing only £2."
The Older People's Week event at Central Hall last Wednesday saw many information stalls giving advice and leaflets to visitors, as well as fun taster sessions in Kurling, Tai Chi and Knitting.
Lord Mayor Cllr Tim Sawdon visited the event, taking time to talk to all the exhibitors, and decided to have a go at Kurling, but had to admit it was not as simple as he had imagined, but still very enjoyable.
He said " This year's Older People's Week's intergenerational activities brought groups together with sessions which helped promote greater understanding between generations, challenged stereotypes and addressed age discrimination, and even more important, everyone really enjoyed themselves!"
Etain McDermott, from the council's Healthy Ageing Programme said "The information event on Wednesday proved to be a great success with over 160 people attending, 42 people had a holistic therapy taster and approx 30 people tried the Zumba and Tai Chi taster session.
David Montgomery, from Age UK added "From our perspective the event was a success we had a good number of people thoroughly enjoying the taster sessions, and wanting to know how and where they could continue to do them."
Antonia Beck, from Belgrade Theatre's Creative Gymnasium Project Manager: "The Creative Gymnasium 50+ Arts and Older people Symposium was a great success and gave the Belgrade Theatre the opportunity to showcase our extremely successful project (Creative Gymnasium 50+), and contribute to wider discussions surrounding arts, health and well-being. We were also thrilled to have the opportunity to present the 50+ production 'Shine On' again and participants were delighted to be able to share their play with new audiences. What a great way to celebrate International Older People's Week".
