UK Older People’s Day
UK Older People’s Day took place on 1 October 2008. The main aims for the day were to:
- celebrate the huge contribution older people make to our society and economy
- create a positive view of later life and tackle outdated stereotypes
- raise awareness of the opportunities and entitlements for older people across society
- ensure older people don’t feel excluded or isolated from the rest of society
Planning is already underway for UK Older People’s Day 2009 – so watch this space for details and we hope you’ll be inspired to get involved.
Bringing generations together
As part of the focus for 2008 on bringing generations together we developed these documents to suggest ideas of how your organisation or school can get involved in intergenerational activity and highlight the benefits.
Why is it important?
Bringing generations together has countless benefits.
- Young people have the opportunity to contribute, to feel valued by adults and inspired and supported by adult role models.
- Older people feel that their skills and experiences are respected, they feel listened to and safe and able play an active part in their communities.
- It gives people the opportunity to contribute to the well being of others in their neighbourhoods while gaining in confidence and having fun.
- It promotes understanding between different ages and challenges those negative perceptions held about both young and older people.
Organising activity to bring generations together
Get ideas and real examples of what people are already doing to inspire you.
- Generating Success – intergenerational activity for older people’s organisations (642KB)
- Generating Success – intergenerational activity for schools (649KB)
These documents have been developed with the help of the Beth Johnson Foundation.
Find out more
Full of Ideas toolkit
The Full of Ideas toolkit was developed for UK Older People’s Day 2008 and includes a selection of ‘ready made’ event ideas, based on this year’s theme of bringing generations together to promote greater understanding and respect. This has been designed to help plan events from start to finish. Use the ideas in this toolkit to help get you started in planning for UK Older People’s Day 2009.
- Full of Ideas toolkit 2008 (1.33MB)