Adding life to years
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Summary

The City of Fremantle is committed towards building on its age-friendly initiatives and fostering a community capacity building approach. This is exemplified through the Together Again Café, which aligns seamlessly into the City’s current Age Friendly City Plan 2019-2024. The project offered an enjoyable monthly morning tea, catering and entertainment in a local accessible venue at no cost to participants. The seeds of the project emerged as a COVID recovery initiative, bringing people together from all walks of life and abilities. The Café mornings delivered on being an inclusive activity, with opportunities being presented to promote inclusion and social participation to a wide cross-section of people attending. It also enabled some older people to share their musical skills in a paid capacity. People who may have been socially isolated had the opportunity to connect with the wider community, lifting spirits and leaving a lasting impact on attendees. The venue was accessible, free parking vouchers were distributed, transport was arranged by service providers picking up people from their homes and taxi voucher were available on request. Evidence showed that most attendees were older people who lived on their own and were potentially socially isolated. Some people came with caregivers and others were brought by their neighbour or family members. The musicians and entertainers were from range of ages which the audience loved and responded to with enthusiasm by joining in singing, clapping, and dancing. The outcomes and achievements from this project directly align with key principles of social participation along with respect and social inclusion. It also delivered on the promotion of sustainable place-based linkages to foster intergeneration cohesion.

Website: https://www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/whats-on/together-again-cafe

Key facts

Main target group: Vulnerable older people (e.g. at risk or victims of abuse, living alone, poor etc.)

Other target group(s): Young people with disabilities became actively involved.

Sector(s): Other

Other sector(s): Local age care service providers to engage their clients Local volunteers and neighbourhood groups, invited to bring older people who lived in their street.

Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships

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

Contact details

Name: Jana Sturis

Email address: seniors@communities.wa.gov.au

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

Others involved in the project:
  • Older People’s Association
  • Social or health care provider
  • Volunteers
  • Private sector

How collaboration worked: The first step taken was to build partnerships with the wider community. Local age care service providers, who support older people living independently in their homes, were contacted. This gave them the opportunity to promote the Café mornings in their programs advertising outings and following up to organise transport. For example Silver Chain were able to bring up to 12 people, many who were local Italian residents. Amana Living also took advantage of this community outing and provided transportation, bringing a small busload of people. The City also had a large database of volunteers (520) who put up their hand to support neighbours during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. All volunteers were emailed and invited to bring someone who lived near them along. Elders from the City’s Reconciliation Action Plan group were invited each month. For the May event, held on Sorry Day, an Aboriginal Elder who was part of the Stolen Generation performed and brought family members along to enjoy the Café morning. The City shared the promotion with Valued Lives Microenterprises which connected two young people with disabilities to the Café, whothen actively became involved with the café mornings as a co-MC and another in the production a short Vimeo.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were consulted during the planning process

Details on older people’s involvement: The Café places a spotlight on increasing social participation and decreasing loneliness of older people.

Moving forward

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

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

Feedback:
Comments received indicated that people enjoyed the opportunity to socialise and connect with others; people shared the time making new friends and sharing knowledge and culture. New friendships were formed and have continued. Local Service providers who transported clients to the event provided feedback that people were looking forward to the monthly event and that they found is welcoming on arrival. The music sometimes was a little loud for some attendees but it was shared that the event was well organised. The important role of service providers to assist with transportation was valued and appreciated and their group of clients were able to make new connections with others in the community. “I like seeing familiar faces. I’ve just moved from Armadale and coming to these events makes me feel like part of a community”.

Expansion plans:
Yes, we intend to roll out another practice with an intergenerational element – bringing performers from our local high schools to entertain our older people in our community.

Looking back

Reflections:
On reflection this project was engaging and fun for all. Surveys indicated clearly that the audience loved it and that was enough interest to consider doing it again. The main issue was the expense and covering costs. Evidence from this project has informed a new initiative for 2023/24 and funding has been received to enable a simpler project.

Challenges:
Attracting a diverse and multicultural audience is always a hurdle and locating the isolated and hard to reach members of the community could be challenging. We addressed this the best way we could via advertising in a printed format via the library and in a local magazine, informing organisations that provide home and community care to bring their clients, and encouraging family members/neighbours to encourage those they thought may enjoy the Café to attend. Transportation and parking were challenges for older people: Options provided included taxi vouchers which were available on request, free parking at the venue, and service providers picking up residents in their community buses. Financial support for sustainability was a third challenge. This was addressed by engaging partners and sponsors. The budget was expended in a conservative effort and discounts were provided.