Funding Announcement!

We are delighted to announce that Age Better in Sheffield has been awarded another year of funding.

Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund we’ve been awarded an additional year of funding to continue our work in reducing loneliness and building Sheffield’s Age-Friendly City status. The investment will enable us to grow connections, support organisations to embrace the World Health Organisation’s 8 domains of an Age Friendly city, and make Sheffield a place we can all be proud to grow older in – no matter our age.

Since 2015 Age Better in Sheffield have worked to improve the lives of people aged over 50 by addressing loneliness and developing creative ways they can be actively involved in their local communities. From Burngreave to Firth Park, and Woodhouse to Beauchief and Greenhill, over 2,000 people across the city have been involved in projects focusing on therapeutic interventions, financial inclusion, creative engagement, confidence with transport, innovative start-up groups, and dealing with life after loss. These projects have been delivered by our partner organisations such as Age UK, Ignite Imaginations, SOAR, Sheffield Mind, Reach South Sheffield, The Lai Yin Association and PWLC.

In 2018 we announced that Sheffield had been accepted as members of the World Health Organisation’s Age-Friendly City network. Since then, Age UK and Lai Yin Association and Age Better have been campaigning and working to grow Sheffield’s Age-Friendly presence. This has included the city’s first Age-Friendly Awards, a brand-new steering group of local experts and residents, a series of working groups made up of people aged 50 and over, and a number of campaigns focusing on the 8 domains of an Age Friendly City.

This new investment will see us reaching out to organisations across Sheffield to continue growing the city’s Age-Friendly work. It will also provide an opportunity for us to share our 5 years of experience and learning around successful ways to end loneliness and social isolation, including creating connected, healthy communities, and spreading joy through challenging times. From our conception, we have championed kindness, connection, co-production, and co-governance and ensured that the voices of people aged 50 and over have been at the heart of all our work. This remains at the core of the programme as we continue to work on our exciting vision.

Edyta Bancer, Programme Delivery Manager for Age Better in Sheffield said, “We are so excited that an investment of this size has been awarded to us in Sheffield – it’s huge news for everyone who calls Sheffield home. We can’t wait to keep building on all the incredible things that are happening in Sheffield and to connect with people across the city and beyond to grow our age friendly network. We’re so proud to be flying the flag for Sheffield as an Age-Friendly City and to be leading the way with an important movement that priorities the health and wellbeing of Sheffield as we all age.”

Juliann Hall, Co-director of Care and Wellbeing at South Yorkshire Housing Association (the lead organisation for ABiS) said:

“There has never been a more critical time for our work or a more important time to make our city Age-Friendly. Covid-19 has impacted on every aspect of our lives – social, emotional, physical and economic, and we are excited to have the opportunity to work alongside older people in Sheffield to reimagine what our city could look like in the future. We also recognise that systems and political structures are going through unprecedented change – we hope that our work and experiences from the last 5 years in Sheffield can help continuing to shape a city where everyone is proud to grow older.”

There will be lots more updates from us soon, and lots of opportunities to get involved with the work. If this sounds like something you’d like to be involved in we would love to hear from you. You can get in touch via social media, or by emailing agebettersheff@syha.co.uk.