How is Ageing with Confidence organised?

Staff

Ageing with Confidence is managed by Programme Director Sue Russell, with administrative assistance from Aleksandra Szymbara.

Funding

Age & Opportunity receives its core funding from the HSE and Ageing with Confidence is one of our main programmes.  This funding is used primarily to staff and promote the programme and to supervise and support the national network of Ageing with Confidence Facilitators. Occasionally, one-off funding for Ageing with Confidence is received from Lottery Funds which is used to fund specific developments and initiatives.

Becoming a provider of Ageing with Confidence

There are many benefits to becoming a provider of the Ageing with Confidence programme. As a provider of community, health, education or social services, your older audience is growing and you need to find ways of engaging that audience.

Ageing with Confidence is a programme that can attract people who you are not already reaching. It engages people, informs them and, most importantly, it gives people the encouragement to act on what they learn. Ageing with Confidence opens the door to future involvement.

Investing in Age & Opportunity’s Facilitator Training course creates a panel of locally-based facilitators with the skills, experience and tools to deliver the Ageing with Confidence course to older people in your service delivery area.

For more information about becoming a provider, contact Sue Russell, Ageing with Confidence Programme Director.

History

Ageing with Confidence was established in 2001 as a community education programme. The programme was developed through a partnership between Northside Counselling Service (NCS), the HSE, Community Care Area 8 (formerly Northern Area Health Board) and Age & Opportunity.

The initiative arose from a perceived need for an educational/self-development course to counter older people’s negative perceptions of ageing and ageism, their lack of confidence and to empower them to improve their health and social gain in their own lives. As a means of achieving this goal Ageing with Confidence provides education for health by developing life skills and by promoting positive mental health and self-confidence for older people.