Age Better in Sheffield is a partnership of individuals and organisations who work together across Sheffield to tackle loneliness and isolation for people aged 50 and over. The programme is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and led by South Yorkshire Housing Association. With partner organisations across Sheffield, Age Better in Sheffield have delivered projects offering financial support, travel assistance, funds for starting community groups and services, mental health and wellbeing support and much more.

Each of these projects have been co-produced and co-designed throughout, to ensure that they can be as effective as possible and meet the needs of the people taking part. Age Better in Sheffield is also guided by a Core Partnership, which includes older people, professionals, and representatives from organisations across the city.

Age Better in Sheffield became members of the World Health Organisation’s Age-Friendly City network in 2018 and have put the voices of Sheffield’s older people at the heart of the work. An age-friendly steering group, made up of a number of people from different professional backgrounds and different areas of the city, meet regularly to direct the development of the programme, to provide governance, and to design and produce strategy documents and materials.

After a city-wide consultation across all postcodes, communities and our existing customers and campaign groups, a baseline assessment was created. Building on the voices gathered, an Age-Friendly Charter is currently being produced, in partnership with organisations such as Sheffield 50+, SCC Equality Network partnership and Friends of Age UK Sheffield.

To ensure that an Age-Friendly Sheffield is designed by the people of Sheffield, for the people of Sheffield, Age UK have created a portal to streamline opportunities for people to engage in voice and influence. The portal will consist of three categories; voice and influence; award and recognition; and stories and experience capture.

Throughout 2020, Lai Yin Association have run Age-Friendly Working Groups with Sheffield’s over 50s, exploring the WHO 8 age-friendly domains. Working Group 1 consisted of 19 participants, mostly of a Chinese background. The first sessions consisted of training, to support the participants in sharing the challenges and benefits of ageing. The participants then broke into smaller groups to focus on the domains. Working Group 2 was put together in partnership with a local BAME organisation and consisted of 5 men and women of different ethnic backgrounds. This group focussed on Sheffield’s housing and health services.

For more information you can find the Working Group reports below:

LaiYin Project Report WG1

LaiYin_Project Report_WG2