Brian Marcel At Full Of Life Fair

Right to Left: Me, Cllr David Marlow, Mayor Jane Boulton, Lionel Blair

In October 2014 I attended the Council’s annual Full of Life celebration for older residents in the borough and had the chance to meet and talk with many residents.  This is just one event where the Council, focuses on promoting services to older residents in the Borough and  in particular reaching out to those who are,  or at least feel that they are,  isolated from the rest of their community. The event attracted over 1,500 residents and carers all keen to get involved in trying out a number of activities including Zumba, Tai Chi, light entertainment as well as learning more about  services available throughout the borough.

This was my first Full of Life Fair as Champion for Older Residents and it was a fantastic event.  I was able to meet many local organisations and interact with residents from across the borough, which was a great opportunity to really listen to older people’s concerns and experiences. It also provided me with an opportunity to share my vision to help more older residents get online. During the lunch hour I interacted with many residents who were very positive about the services provided by the Council and local organisations, which I found very encouraging.

I feel it is very important to reach residents who live isolated later lives in our borough. This has been identified as an issue locally and I want to use my time as Older People’s Champion to work with local community groups, care groups, Age UK and others to reach this group. One way of getting people connected is by enabling them to get online and using Ipads/tablets regularly to stay connected. This will also help them have more e control over the services they get, such as accessing their health records more easily.

I will continue to build on the already existing good work carried out by our statutory, voluntary and community sector and I hope to see more older residents getting online over the coming year..

Note:
The Full of Life Fair is a local version of the national Full of Life campaign. Each year, organizers call on local voluntary groups and community centres to host Full of Life events locally to highlight what is available locally for local older residents and carers looking for support or information.