Selfie With A Senior Competition and Exhibition

Adding life to years

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Summary

Community members of all ages celebrated seniors by participating in a fun competition, designed to address ageism. The City of Rockingham’s second Selfie with a Senior competition encouraged participants to submit selfies with older people and include a short description of why that person was so special to them. A judging panel (which included young people and seniors) selected one winner who received a cash price of AUD $500 and a framed picture of their selfie. The winner was selected because of her dedication to honouring seniors and breaking down the stigma and stereotypes of old age.

The selfies and descriptions were shared with the community on the City’s Facebook page and website during Western Australia’s Seniors Week. All selfies were professionally framed and were then also exhibited for two weeks in a prominent public space where it stimulated and generated further conversations around ageing. The City partnered with a local community arts group who were responsible for the hanging of the individually framed selfies and professionally printed didactic panels.

The competition and exhibition were well received by community members of all ages. Surveys indicated that 100% of the competition entrants changed their attitude towards seniors to be more positive. Of those who visited the exhibition, 80% has changed their attitude towards seniors to be more positive; and 96% agreed or strongly agreed that visiting the exhibition has generated greater respect for seniors in the community.

Website: https://rockingham.wa.gov.au/seniors

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): People of all ages

Sector(s): Social protection

Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Ageism
Intergenerational activities
Inclusion
Technologies

Contact details

Name: Jarvis, Rebekka

Email address: Rebekka.Jarvis@rockingham.wa.gov.au

Preferred language(s): English

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

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

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people were the focus of this campaign. Community members of all ages were encouraged to celebrate the contribution seniors make to them and their their local communities. Furthermore, a judging panel, which included seniors, was established to select the winning selfie.

Moving forward

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

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Please share with us what you found in detail:
The Selfie with a Senior campaign was well received by the community. It created a unique platform to address ageism through encouraging community members to share positive images of seniors.

Feedback:
Feedback was all very positive. This included feedback received on social media posts, competition entrants, as well as visitors to the Selfie with a Senior Exhibition.

Expansion plans:
This is the second Selfie with a Senior competition that the City facilitated, with the introduction of an exhibition the second time. The City will continue to use this model to involve community members to celebrate and share positive images of older people, and to break down the negative stereotypes associated with ageing.

Looking back

Challenges:
There were few challenges associated with this project.