National Age Friendly Counties Programme Ireland

THE NATIONAL AGE FRIENDLY COUNTY PROGRAMME HAS LAUNCHED ITS NATIONAL WEBSITE: WWW.AFCIRELAND.COM

The Age Friendly CountY Programme aims to create communities where all of us as we age, enjoy a good quality of life and continue to participate fully in the life of those communities.

The programme is currently being rolled out on a phased basis through the four regions.  Our ambition is that every Local Authority area in Ireland will have its own Age-Friendly County Programme involving an Alliance of senior decision makers and influencers across key public, private and voluntary agencies and the leaders of an Older People’s Forum which is open to all older people to join. 

The programme is based on the WHO Age-friendly Cities Framework and Guidelines – which were developed by 33 cities (including Dundalk!) from across the world and involved a major consultation with older people in each of those places.  The framework - see Figure 1 below - comprises eight interrelated elements from public spaces to transport.  The WHO has recently established the WHO Global Network of Age-friendly cities and participating Irish counties are affiliating.

The aims of our programme are ambitious and will require a change in how we think about ageing and how we collaborate and plan to deliver improvements in supports and services as a result.

The programme is a key initiative of the Ageing Well Network – an independent network of leaders and heads of organizations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the field of ageing who share a vision of Ireland as the best country in the world in which to grow old, and are committed to achieving it.

Continue to Rationale and Scope