We all love to see fresh flowers, tastefully displayed and showing off nature in all its loveliness and colour, but to arrange them so that they look their best takes a little practice. Thanks to support from the Ageing Better in Birmingham programme, Samreena Begum, with the help of Nita Upa...
Stories
Meeting each Tuesday at the Church of God of Prophecy in Acocks Green, people get moving with regular Zumba classes, sewing, dominos and trips to the seaside. We caught up with people who attend the group for various activities. Enid and Delbert, a lovely couple who have been married 60 years. Origi...
The answer is YES. Everyone can reduce isolation and make communities better places to live and grow older: All you need is a bit of time! Isolation and loneliness is on the government’s agenda. Since her recent appointment as loneliness minister, Tracey Crouch has revealed that she was approached b...
Birmingham Council wants your views! Birmingham City Council would like to hear your opinion on how local residents, community organisations and public services can work better together in your local area, to improve your services and your neighbourhood. This survey is about the consultation ...
The Birmingham Community Cohesion Strategy Green Paper outlines a Birmingham in which individuals and groups can live with trust in their neighbourhoods, those from different backgrounds and in local institutions. It vision for a more integrated Birmingham. You can find b...
Birmingham LGBT aims to make Birmingham the leading location for LGBT people to grow older Birmingham LGBT is launching Ageing with Pride, a year-long campaign aimed at promoting the lives and lived experiences of older LGBT people across the city, focusing on highlighting the positive contri...
You don’t have to be Barmy to join this Ageing Better Knitters group – but it helps! One of the Ageing Better groups that we visited recently is called Barmy Knitters, a gathering of 7 or so ladies who sit together, chat, drink tea and knit or crochet some lovely colourful items destined for ...
Are you part of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community in Birmingham? We want to hear from you! ABIC Ltd, an evaluation company based in Leamington Spa is undertaking an evaluation of the Ageing with Pride initiative, which is part of our programme. Ageing with Pride is a project that seeks ...
The broad definition of volunteering, given by the NCVO, includes any unpaid activity which benefits the society or other people. This could be formal activity, undertaken through a service provider or informal activity within the community. Typically, formal volunteering involves a recruitment proc...
Encouraging Diversity, Building Community - in a Care Home and Beyond… “In this day and age, when people are more open and able to speak freely about their sexuality, some of the older generation are still a little bit more reserved with it. It’s important that once they’ve come out and been ...
If you are from the black country, we urge you to sign up to this important Cabinet Office Policy Lab Workshop On Friday the 15th June the Office for Civil Society is organising a workshop with speakers from organisations such as the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission and the Cabinet Office. D...
New Birmingham project seeks to increase social connections between older carers and the wider community We are pleased to announce that Making Space for Carers has been awarded to Forward Carers Consortium. Making Space for Carers is a 2-year project that seeks to increase social connections betwee...
National statistics on wellbeing 2017 The Office for National Statistics recently published its 2017 report which reveals the positive news that the general quality of wellbeing in the UK is rising. This is reflected in the findings that ‘average ratings of happiness and feeling that the things done...
Are you over 50 and isolated? Do you know of someone who could benefit from meeting new people and making friends? Here at Ageing Better in Birmingham we support people who are over 50, based somewhere in the city and who would like to get to know people in their local neighbourhood. W...
Well we can start by looking at what we can do together! That is exactly what citizens of Birmingham have done. By starting new or expanding on existing community groups, people in Birmingham are organising activities for isolated older people. A movement is underway which we hope will continu...
Ageing with Pride awarded to Birmingham LGBT The project, one of several within the LGBT Community Local Action Plan, is co-designed with older LGBT people. It is an intensive campaign through effective marketing and communication approaches using community development and active citizenship....
Born 1954, Michael shares his experiences of being gay and staying in the closet for much of his life. In this great blog post, we get to know a man who felt he had to confine to the norms of society, which at the time he grew up was not accepting sexuality outside the heterosexual spectrum. Speakin...
Exciting new project in Sparkbrook Connect Sparkbrook: Addressing Older People’s Social Isolation is a two-year, ward-wide project, capable of reaching all parts of the Sparkbrook Ward and all its communities. The project will have two work streams: Connecting Communities with a focus on place, to a...
Caring for a loved one, particularly one who is suffering from dementia, can be lonely and isolating, so it’s good to be able meet with others who are in the same position, talk about shared experiences and offer support and guidance to one another. Located at the border of Sandwell and Birmingham, ...