Project lead: Social or health care provider

How collaboration worked: The Government worked hand in hand with Tuen Mun District Council to facilitate the implementation of the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project funded and initiated by Hong Kong Jockey Club Trust in the community. Meanwhile, Lingnan University and the non-governmental organisations carried out the district-based programmes through their well-established network, resources, and expertise. Lingnan University conducted monitoring and evaluation along the courses and provided evidence-based reflection to the community partners for programme enhancement. The success of the programmes owes much to the close collaboration among the Government, community organisations, academia, and the private sectors.

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

Details on older people’s involvement: Elderly residents were the main target participants of the programmes. They participated in diverse activities, such as skills training on smart phone application, body checks, public performance, which aimed at enhancing the age friendliness in the district. Elderly participants were also recruited as ambassadors to facilitate the implementation of the programmes. They were trained and empowered to carry out various community work and play supporting roles in campaign promotion and trainings.

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

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

Feedback:
Participants were generally satisfied with the programmes and agreed that the programmes not only equipped them with new knowledge and skills, but also brought positive changes to the community, especially in “Community support and health services”, “Respect and social inclusion” and “Communication and information” domains. They appreciated that the programmes improved their understanding of age-friendly city. The participants, especially the trained ambassadors, have better understanding of the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project and the age-friendly city concept after joining the programmes. They became more sensitive to the age-friendliness in the community. For instance, some of them could identify the risk factors of the living environment, which were unsafe and unfriendly for elderly to live during the home visits. In addition, they had better understandings of the needs of other elderly in the community and became more motivated to support the neighbors. Their sense of self-worth and accomplishment was improved as they felt being respect and valued through the participation in the programmes.

Expansion plans:
The programmes recruited and trained a number of ambassadors whom were familiar with the age-friendly concept and passionate in promoting age-friendly city in the community. These group of ambassadors became important supporters to continually enhance the age-friendliness in the district. Moreover, following the successful launch of the first batch and second batches of the district-based programmes, the third batch programmes under the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project were launched in 2020. Furthermore, the third batch district-based programme will also cover inter-generation elements and activities to improve the intergenerational understanding and mutual respect among the elderly and youth.

Reflections:
In general, the district-based programmes conducted in 2019 at Tuen Mun district achieved positive results in improving age friendliness in the district. The participants were grateful to the staff for their support, flexibility, and “participant-centered” nature during the program implementation. The staff sought suggestions from the participants, which made them feel respected. Thus, the innovative ideas as well as well-designed activities were attractive to the participants. However, some participants revealed that some of the district-based programmes services were very basic, and they expected the social service units to provide further follow-up activities and services. Participants also shared that they wished the programme implementation period could be extended to reach more participants. Some ambassadors mentioned that they would like to have continuous skill-based trainings, which would be helpful for them to conduct voluntary work, such as home visits.

Challenges:
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, the activities and center operation of NGOs were severely influenced. To cope with the unexpected situation without suspending district-based programmes, the collaborative parties decided to extend the programme duration to Oct 2020. The service delivery approach was also altered from physical to virtual platform. To minimize the negative impacts of the pandemic on the programmes, service providers have tried different innovative ways to provide services, such as conducting activities via online platform, organizing trainings/performance by providing video-recorded presentation, promoting age-friendliness concept by sending Instagram post, encouraging neighborhood support to the rural elderly who had difficulty using Internet, and so on.