Cork Age Friendly City Programme

What is an Age Friendly City? 

An Age Friendly city is a place where older people are supported to stay living in their own homes and communities, lead healthy and active lives, get to where they want to go, when they want to go, and are valued contributors to the lives of their communities.

Cork Age Friendly City Programme

Cork was designated an Age Friendly City in April of 2019 and was one of 31 Local Authorities who were presented with their World Health Organisation (WHO) Charter on December 16, 2019. The objectives of the Cork City Age Friendly programme are to:

• Increase the participation of older people in the social, economic and cultural life of the community for everybody’s benefit.
• Improve the health and well-being of older people in the city.
• Demonstrate how services and supports for older people can be made more responsive, caring, professional and accessible, through imaginative and cost-effective partnerships.
• Lead the way in demonstrating the processes and infrastructure that are required, the benefits to be gained and the lessons to be learnt from adopting an integrated approach to the planning and delivery of services for older people.

Cork Older People's Forum

What is the Cork Older People's Forum?

Older People’s Councils are established in every local authority area of Ireland under the National Age Friendly Programme. In Cork the Older People’s Forum provides a forum for older people in the City to come together, share common concerns, ideas and experiences, and to inform the decision-making process of the Cork Age Friendly City Programme. The Forum brings the voice of older people into local government and help to inform private and public service provision.

The membership is made up of individual older people and older people’s groups for example, active retirement groups, people with dementia, people living in residential care, and people of different ethnicities.

Membership of the Forum is free and open to all.

The forum meets quarterly and its functions are to :

 Represent the views of the Forum at the Cork Age Friendly Alliance. 

• Provide older people in Cork City with a recognised Forum to contribute to the decision-making processes that may affect their lives. 

• Provide advice and information to co-design solutions in response to barriers and challenges facing older people 

• To feedback information and progress on the area plans and City-wide strategy to older persons groups in the area. 

• Inform national policy issues through the National Age Friendly Ireland structure.

L-R Cork City Age Friendly Forum members Nora O’Donovan, Finbarr Coughlan, Phil Uí Mhurchú, Noel Dempsey and Chris Dorgan, Cork City Council at the launch of the Cork City Age Friendly seating in Cork city.

 Age Friendly Business Recognition Programme

It’s easy to make your business age friendly. Most age friendly practices are low or zero cost and can mean a big difference in your bottom line.

Simple changes such as making your business easier to find, enter, move around and make purchases in are good for your customers and better for your business.

By developing an age friendly business, you are letting older people know that you value their custom and you are committed to serving them. Join the Age Friendly Business community by registering for our FREE business training today and become ‘Age Friendly Accredited’, attracting and retaining this powerful customer base.

Age Friendly practices improve the experience for all your customers.

Age Friendly is people friendly. Everyone profits.

For further details contact agefriendlycork@corkcity.ie

 For further information on the Cork Age Friendly City Programme or to join the Age Friendly Forum or mailing List please contact:

 Siubhán Mc Carthy (Coordinator)

Cork Age Friendly City Programme, Community, Culture and Placemaking, City Hall, Cork.

Tel 021-4924560 

Text or WhatsApp : 086 0123479   

E-mail: agefriendlycork@corkcity.ie  &  siubhan_mccarthy@corkcity.ie