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Digital Visibility in Age Friendly Newcastle

Digital Visibility in Age Friendly Newcastle

Summary

Our case study illustrates the partnership between older volunteers from the Elders Council of Newcastle and PhD researcher Arlind Reuter from Open Lab (Newcastle University). Elders Council of Newcastle (www.elderscouncil.org.uk) is an older people-led organisation and a key stakeholder in Age Friendly Newcastle (AFC). Elders Council’s mission is to ensure that older people are engaged in decision-making and are informed about issues and opportunities. Elders Council volunteers recognised the need to improve their digital communication skills. With the support of the researcher, they re-designed a digital newsletter using a digital marketing platform which provides important insights. The newsletter has consistently high engagement rates and has been a key communication tool during COVID 19. Supported by the researcher, Elders Council has built on the success of its longstanding radio programme – Older Voices – to become a member of the Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative which aims to provide talk-based audio and radio content created by older adults as a way of involving older people in public dialogue https://www.mixcloud.com/LLARC/stream/. By showing that older adults can be actively engaged with the creation of digital communications, we highlight the potential of a diverse and creative digital strategy in facilitating dialogue with older residents.

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Education, Information and communication

Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Ageism
  • Intergenerational activities
  • Inclusion
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Barbara Douglas

Email address: Barbara.douglas@elderscouncil.org.uk

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Volunteers

Others involved in the project:
  • Research institution

How collaboration worked: Our age friendly practice has been developed through partnership and collaboration. It has not required additional funding and has been delivered entirely through in-kind contributions. The Elders Council receives core funding from the municipality but the work of the organisation is done primarily by volunteers.

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 are central to this age-friendly practice which is focused on developing the skills of older people to contribute to Age Friendly Newcastle and to support their peers.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? No

Feedback:
The consistently high open rate (50%) and click rate (11%) on the Elders Council digital newsletter is an indication of how well it is received and used. Feedback from a member: ‘A great big that you to all that you do to send out all this wonderful information, I look forward to it all, some of which is no use to me but I can always pass on bits to friends and family.’ The Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative is growing its membership of radio stations and individual programmes from across the UK.

Expansion plans:
Elders Council members will continue to develop their digital skills and are working with student volunteers who offer support to individuals to improve their skills. Elders Council will continue to expand its digital communication programme. Elders Council will also work with partners to help more older people to get on-line and feel safe using the opportunities this offers. Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative is in the early stages of development and the members of the Co-operative are committed to continue its development.

Looking back

Reflections:
Our age friendly practice came about organically through good relationships between Elders Council and Newcastle University. If we were to do a similar programme again, we might seek to involve more older people and seek the resources to offer a more structured programme to enable more older people to develop their skills in digital communications.

Challenges:
The main challenges faced by the Elders Council is the recruitment of enough older volunteers who are interested and willing to give their time to the organisation. The organisation continues to explore ways of engaging a more diverse group of people.