• Involving older people
  • National consultation
  • Defining well-being
  • Local activity
  • Project team
• Reports and reviews
• Blog

Involving older people

This is a critical time in the national debate around supporting older people to lead full lives as active citizens.

The numbers and proportion of older and very old people will continue to grow significantly. The debate surrounding this tends to stereotype older people as a problem especially at a time when cuts in public spending are imposing financial constraints on systems of care and adding to the ‘cost burden’ on a decreasing proportion of taxpayers. Shaping our Age challenges these negative perspectives and highlights the opportunity for older people to be supported and enabled to be active contributors to society and to challenge notions of dependency.

Shaping our Age is a three-year, Big Lottery funded project and unique partnership between Royal Voluntary Service, the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University and the Centre for Social Action at De Montfort University.

The project aims to explore how older people define their well-being, and is developing participatory ways in which older people can help each other to achieve their well-being.

It will provide the tools and campaigning materials that could exert massive influence and transform how Royal Voluntary Service works with older people and the way we approach living well in old age

Shaping our Age will inform the entire sector of older people’s services including national and local government, health authorities and other partners to enable older people in their well-being to help themselves and each other and many have already signed up to it.

You can read more about the project in the Shaping our Age launch paper

The project is in four phases:

National consultation

We held interviews and focus groups with a diverse range of older people all across the UK building on their experience and knowledge on the subject of well-being

Defining well-being

We published our research report Voices on Well-being which reported on how older people define well-being and measures of their own well-being.

Local activity

We’re currently working with five Royal Voluntary Service services to identify innovative ways for older people individually and collectively to improve their own well-being.

Implementation

We’ll provide the evidence and tools for Royal Voluntary Service and others to transform the support they offer to improve older people’s well-being and campaign to put well-being, as defined by older people, at the centre of their work.