GOAL 1
Develop strong, sustainable Age Friendly City and County Programmes aimed at improving the quality of life of older people throughout Ireland.
Strategic Priorities
Age Friendly Ireland will:
- extend the Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme to all 31 local authority areas in Ireland
- support the development of effective city- and county-based multi-agency Alliances and Age Friendly Strategies in each local authority area, ensuring that member agencies collaborate on common age-friendly agendas and streamline their work to ensure the local implementation of the National Positive Ageing Strategy
- enhance the effectiveness of the age-friendly cross-agency collaborative approach, including by:
- supporting the development of shared goals between partner agencies
- heightening awareness and understanding of the multi-faceted benefits of collaboration
- strengthen the voice and participation of older people in the Age Friendly Programme, through supporting ongoing capacity-building programmes for older people across our cities and counties.
GOAL 2
Optimise the quality and impact of the Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme by supporting the wide-scale application of innovative, effective and sustainable age-friendly practices.
Strategic Priorities
Age Friendly Ireland will:
- act as a hub for knowledge transfer, fostering connections, networks and information exchange between Age Friendly Programme leaders, agency officials, non-governmental organisations, service providers and older people, both locally and nationally
- promote innovative practice alongside the wider application of high quality and proven age-friendly measures by:
- fostering the facility to harness the resources of individual partners at local level
- developing and maintaining a comprehensive compendium of age-friendly practices and other relevant tools to support age-proofing of key services
- supporting effective programme communications through online and other relevant channels
- disseminating available evidence showing the value and sustainability of key age-friendly initiatives
- promote the scaling-up of age-friendly actions which are proven to produce successful, sustainable quality of life gains for older people at local level.
GOAL 3
Gather data and translate knowledge on healthy and positive ageing in order to achieve better outcomes and strengthen links with national policy.
Strategic Priorities
Age Friendly Ireland will:
- apply findings from Age Friendly City and County consultation and engagement processes to inform and influence policy and service development at national and local level
- use valid and reliable evidence on the lives of older people to compile:
- a national overview two-yearly report on ‘the state of the nation’s older population”, against which progress on positive ageing can be measured
- reports on each city and county, in the context of the National Positive Ageing Strategy
- strengthen engagement and communication with politicians and national-level policy-makers
- strengthen its leadership role in the WHO Global Network of Age Friendly Cities and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.