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‘Genkide kenkō jumyō o nobashite’: I am healthy and extend my healthy life

Summary

Oi Town has a social and activity club for older people called “Oi, Folks! Genki-kai”. This club is held twice a month at 13 community centers which are easily accessible on foot. Residents over 60 years old can join the club anytime without prior registration, and most of our participants are over 80 years old. The club participants enjoy effective exercise programmes to promote physical strength, as well as different activities that help contribute to healthy ageing and help promote longevity (including crafts and music). When necessary meetings are held collaboratively with a volunteers.

The “Genki-kai” club aims to help older people live in the way they wish, by building their capacity for independent living. To improve accessibility, shuttle buses run in the town’s hilly areas where transportation is limited. Volunteers aged 65 and over manage and organize the club, and they themselves enjoy the club’s activities which they feel helps to prevent their own dependency on care.

Website: https://www.town.oi.kanagawa.jp/soshiki/7/chiikishien.html

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Education, Health

Other sector(s): Socializing, care prevention

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

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

Contact details

Name: Sadao Suzuki

Email address: kaigo@town.oi.kanagawa.jp

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Volunteers

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities

Older people’s involvement: Older people helped to implement the age-friendly practice

Moving forward

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

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? Yes

Looking back

Reflections:
It is important to believe in the power of volunteers. If we trust volunteers and correctly identify their abilities, they will be empowered to contribute their talents and bring about success to our programs.

Challenges:
A challenge we faced was the presence of gaps between the way the town department and volunteers thought. To address this challenge, whenever we encountered a difference in ways of thinking, we listened to volunteers’ opinions closely and had a discussion in order to come to a mutual understanding that was inclusive of everyone’s perspectives.