Adding life to years
Login
Join us
Text size:
-+=

Celebrating older people in the Macedon Ranges

Celebrating older people in the Macedon Ranges

Summary

Every October the Victorian State Government hosts a “Seniors Festival” to promote healthy ageing within Victoria. The State Government provides local governments with funding each year to implement a project, event, or initiative to celebrate older people in their community. During the “Seniors Festival” in October 2021, Macedon Ranges Council wanted to celebrate and highlight all of the great contributions older people make to the community. We decided on a program that would recognise older people while promoting a message of positive ageing amongst the community. We asked the community to nominate an older person that they thought contributes greatly to the community, to receive a ‘celebration box’.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=217580767220603&set=pb.100069060434950.-2207520000.&type=3

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): Older people who contribute to community

Sector(s): Education, Health, Other

Other sector(s): Volunteer

Desired outcome for older people:
Contribute

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Ageism
  • Ageing in place
  • Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
  • Inclusion
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Naomi Scrivener

Email address: nscrivener@mrsc.vic.gov.au

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Other

Other project lead: Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Others involved in the project:
  • Social or health care provider
  • Volunteers

How collaboration worked: We worked with volunteers to deliver the celebration boxes to our recipients. The volunteers worked within COVID guidelines, and all thoroughly enjoyed the delivery of this project.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people were a part of multiple stages of this project. Older people were the recipients and the audience being celebrated through the project. A large proportion of our volunteers are older people, the project provided them with another opportunity to partake in meaningful volunteer work in the community. Older people were also involved in nominating a person to receive a ‘celebration box’, a large proportion of nominators were peers of those nominated from being involved in the same group

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: Yes

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Feedback:
Feedback received from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Community members nominating an older person, were grateful for the opportunity for their peers/friends/family to be recognised for their commitment and dedication to the community. Feedback from recipients of the ‘celebration boxes’ was also positive. Feedback was appreciative of the recognition, happy with the box and its contents as well as the thought that it was just such a lovely project.

Expansion plans:
Yes. We will be expanding the ‘celebration box’ program in 2022. The program will take place in October 2022 during Seniors Festival. With COVID restrictions being removed, we will hold an event where all recipients will receive their ‘celebration box’ in front of their friends, family and community. The event will be hosted by Macedon Ranges Shire Council CEO, Bernie O’Sullivan and presented by Mayor Jennifer Anderson. The event will also be a celebration of Council signing the EveryAGE Counts pledge against ageism.

Looking back

Reflections:
This was such a great program to implement. It was so nice to see older people recognised for contributions they make by their peers. The collective contributions made by older people in the community strongly reinforced the enormous role older people play in supporting community activities. Profiles of ‘celebration box’ recipients were promoted via social media, where more congratulations and recognition was shared. The program was a great step forward to promoting positive ageing and break down ageist stereotypes.

Challenges:
COVID restrictions- The COVID restrictions at the time this program was implemented made it impossible to do an in-person celebration event. In order to keep everyone safe, we made contactless deliveries to each of our recipients. Volunteers delivered each box to the older person’s home, and left them at the front door and rang the bell. Volunteers and recipients maintained 1.5m social distance but were able to have a small conversation and offer congratulations to the recipient.