In November 2014, Sligo County Council became part of the national Age Friendly Programme and set up its Age Friendly Alliance to make County Sligo a great place in which to grow old. The Sligo Age Friendly Programme was launched on 11 February, 2015 and through extensive countywide consultation the Sligo Age Friendly Strategy was produced for 2016-2020. The Strategy was developed to ensure that it supports existing statutory plans such as the County Development Plan and local area plans to ensure that the county’s social, cultural economic and physical environment is moving towards becoming more age friendly and supporting a healthy and positive experience of ageing.

The Sligo Age Friendly Alliance was established to bring together members from statutory, private, voluntary and community sectors to enable different services and initiatives support each other. Working collaboratively also enables us to meet the needs of older people in the county more effectively.

Sligo County Council is committed to advancing the Age Friendly Agenda and has over the past 12 months promoted Age Friendly interventions and initiatives through a number of funding measures such as the Community Enhancement Programme, Healthy Ireland Fund and the National Community weekend. It is the Council’s intention to continue with such an approach to further advance the Age Friendly agenda.
In particular, the investment in programming will support the development of an ‘Older Persons Council’, a vehicle in which older persons in our community can become genuine partners in the ongoing planning and delivery of services in County Sligo.