International Festival of Public Health

Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Ageing

Developing age-friendly cities: innovations in Manchester

In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the Age-Friendly Cities movement to promote ‘active ageing’ in cities and optimise ‘opportunities for health, participation and security in older age’

As the UK’s first Age-Friendly City, Manchester has been at the forefront of the Age-Friendly Cities movement, developing a series of ground-breaking programmes and initiatives to enhance older people’s quality of life across the city. This workshop will be a chance to explore some of these new and emerging Age-Friendly approaches that are developing across Manchester.

Leading the workshop, Professor Chris Phillipson (University of Manchester) will describe the Age-Friendly Cities approach and how it is being applied and tested out on-the-ground in Manchester. Examples will include the highly-acclaimed Old Moat Age-Friendly Neighbourhood project – a research/community development project commissioned by a housing provider in south Manchester.

Introducing Manchester’s broader ’Age-Friendly’ strategy Sophie Handler, (Valuing Older People Team, Public Health Manchester) will show how the latest research on urban ageing is being used to help inform the city’s wider Age-Friendly agenda – as well as the role of ‘Age-Friendly Manchester’ in helping the WHO pilot a new set of Age-Friendly indicators for its Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities.

Session Lead:

Professor Chris Phillipson

Prof Chris Phillipson is Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology at the University of Manchester where he co-directs the Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Ageing. He has published widely in the field of ageing with a recent focus on issues relating to urban change and later life.

Professor Phillipson has collaborated closely with the VOP team, Public Health Manchester on a variety of programmes and projects. He currently sits on the VOP Senior Advisory Board.

For more information about Age-Friendly Manchester and the Valuing Older People Team please visit:

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500099/valuing_older_people/3428/valuing_older_people_vop