May 19, 2021
Jan 2025
Hastings Voluntary Action were pleased to be asked to feed into the Healthy Ageing Scrutiny report prepared by the Adult Social Care and Health department for the East Sussex County Council back in Summer 2024.
The final report and recommendations can be viewed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
We are happy to see much of the work that we have been doing with older people in Hastings through individual projects and through the Hastings Ageing Network reflected in the recommendations made to full council.
Please do take a look at what has been going on below and if you are interested in working with us or finding out more then do get in touch!
We continue to engage with older people on issues that affect them as they age through conversations at a variety of Age Friendly sessions. More information on these can be found by signing up to our Age Friendly Whatsapp group or by joining our email contacts list - to do so please email [email protected]
Currently we are exploring opportunities to include inter generational activities to create social connection in our work - details will be posted shortly of our exciting plans for the celebration of Age Without Limits day www.ageing-better.org.uk on 11th June 2025!
There are lots of ways to get involved in our work - we are working with our Ageing Network members on events during Loneliness Awareness Week 9-15 June and also for a celebration of National Older Peoples Day on 1st Oct - we will also be collating a Hastings offer for the ESCC Full of Life brochure covering Sept-Oct 2025 so if you are planning anything do let us know.
HVA encourage Hastings businesses and organisations to join us in becoming an Age Friendly Employer by signing the Age Friendly Employer Pledge www.ageing-better.org.uk tackling ageism and promoting positive ageing throughout Hastings.
Through our ageing work we promote flexible volunteering opportunities that address barriers to volunteering and link people to opportunities based on their interests, skills and skills. For example - our Age Friendly Cultural Involvement group meet regularly to plan events such as the Diwali celebration in November and the Chinese New Year celebration in February. If you would like more details on Age Friendly volunteer opportunities please contact [email protected] or call 01424 444010.
We provide a forum for discussion, training and partnership working for groups and organisations supporting local people in later life. The Hastings Ageing Network meets monthly in person and works together to provide a year long programme of social sessions, activities and events. We respond to network partners insight and concerns on age related issues through themed meetings on topics such as Dementia, Accessibility, Loneliness, Food Security, Life Transitions, Culture, Health etc. The network is often approached by local and national stakeholders to consult or engage in a variety of age related initiatives. To join our network contact [email protected]
Currently we are working with ESCC Adult Social Care on a new Accessibility checklist so that partners can measure how Age Friendly and accessible their events are, later in 2025 we will be working with the University of Surrey and Hastings Borough Council on Hospitality Connect - looking at and working with local hospitality businesses to see how Age Friendly and accessible their venues are to older people and we are also involved in some Dementia being undertaken by the Community Mental Health Partnership Group.
Age Friendly Ambassadors - representatives from older peoples groups play a crucial part in our work and in the Ageing Network. Our Age Friendly Ambassadors help create and promote Hastings as an Age Friendly Community, they share information, encourage others to participate and helps shape local services and activities. If you are part of an older peoples group in Hastings or St Leonards and would like to join our team of ambassadors then please contact [email protected] or [email protected] or call 01424 444010
Following our work with the East Sussex County Council Connecting People and Places programme in 2024 we will be bringing frontline workers and volunteers working with older people in Hastings together informally through our Connecting the Connectors coffee mornings to strengthen relationships, better understand each others roles and encourage collaboration through age related projects and events. Our first coffee morning of 2025 takes place on 27th March at Central Hall in Hastings town centre from 10.30am - coffee and pastries provided - to sign up email [email protected]
Following our pilot work with the National Academy for Social Prescribers (NASP) around social prescribing for older adults HVA were invited to join the NASP Innovation Hub and the East Sussex Social Prescribing Forum to further develop our knowledge and insight in to local and national social prescribing services for older adults. We are continuing to build on the pilot work through further stakeholder conversations and projects including our new Coffee and Connections social sessions and Eat Well, Age Well - a new food resilience initiative funded by Public Health for older people coming soon.
We are really pleased to have been asked to work in partnership with staff at Hastings Borough Council, including new Age Friendly Champion Councillor Amanda Jobson, and Public Health colleagues on the next phase of the Age Friendly Communities programme in Hastings from 2025 and beyond. HVA were involved in initial engagement work on this programme back in 2019 and welcome the longer term commitment to support people in our town as they age.
HVA works closely with the Centre for Ageing Better in London who are the national leads for the Age Friendly Communities programme - we also share learning with other UK partners through monthly peer sessions, work alongside other local Age Friendly Community partners such as Rother Voluntary Action and sit on the Public Health Healthy Ageing Partnership.
We will update this page with new opportunities and developments as they arise so do keep an eye out for further Age Friendly news.
May 2023
Hastings Voluntary Action has now completed the engagement phase of the Age Friendly Communities project. A comprehensive report detailing the findings from this engagement can be viewed by clicking on the link further down this page.
We are committed to working with Hastings Borough Council whose responsibility it is as the Local Authority partner to take the Age Friendly Communities work forward to the next stage.
December 2020
Hastings becomes an Age Friendly Community-
Hastings Borough Council passed a motion for Hastings to join the World Health Organisation Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities.
Age-friendly communities is a concept developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2006 with already over 800 members worldwide. In an Age-friendly community, services, local groups, businesses and residents all work together to identify and make the necessary changes in both the physical and social environment to both support and enable older people to lead healthy and active lives. The Age-friendly Communities framework includes eight domains, or areas, that places can address to improve their structures and services to meet older people's needs and all of us as we age. Find out more about the 8 domains here: The eight domains of age-friendly | Centre for Ageing Better (ageing-better.org.uk)
This is the start of a really exciting opportunity for Hastings and will be led by a partnership including Hastings Voluntary Action (HVA), The Centre for Ageing Better and Hastings Borough Council.
Over the last year we have been talking to local people in community venues across Hastings and St Leonards and also working in partnership with Optivo and Orbit to speak to residents in social housing about their views on different areas of infrastructure in our town and what, if any, changes are required to support ageing well.
In 2022 we will be continuing to have these conversations on a wider level including holding Age Friendly Communities events at weekends for those who work during the week and we will also be talking to younger people about how they perceive growing old in Hastings and St Leonards.
Attached below is a report by Ruby Cox, previous Older Person's Champion, on year one of the Age Friendly Communities project for Hastings and St Leonards. The report is a snapshot of some of the work undertaken between Hastings Voluntary Action and Hastings Borough Council.
April 2019
Age Friendly Volunteering -
Our Age-friendly and Inclusive Volunteering Project ran from April 2019 to September 2020, and the latter stages were affected by the worldwide pandemic.
In our Age-friendly and Inclusive Volunteering Project, we will try to overcome barriers to volunteering that older people face. During 2019/20 we are testing out three initiatives:
1. We are developing a Volunteering Club, for older people who are taking a break from their volunteering, or older people who face barriers to volunteering. This may be due to issues around anxiety, poor mental health, lack of confidence, bereavement, or ill health. This Volunteering Club will:
- Tackle any barriers to volunteering using an “Access to Volunteering” fund
- Support people to get ready for volunteering through coaching and peer support.
- Make people feel connected (through gatherings, printed news-sheets, facebook)
- Suggest new volunteering opportunities that are age-friendly
- Support easy access one-off volunteering activities to try, when each person is ready
- Offer quarterly Celebration events, to celebrate people’s achievements and promote successful outcomes
2. We are recruiting a team of older people to be Volunteer Champions – telling their own volunteering stories, and encouraging and inspiring other people of all ages to volunteer. Some of the Volunteer Champions will participate in the Volunteering Club, and support club members to get into volunteering.
3. We will train/advise Volunteer Involving Organisations (voluntary sector and statutory sector) to support them to make their volunteering opportunities more flexible, age-friendly and suitable for older people’s lives, and changes in their life circumstances. This will ensure that there are more volunteering opportunities that are age-friendly and inclusive.
Hastings Voluntary Action is one of five organisations in England to be awarded a one-year grant through the Age-friendly and Inclusive Volunteering Fund. This fund was launched following a review of community contributions in later life, conducted by the Centre for Ageing Better in partnership with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the National Lottery Community Fund.
https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/publications/age-friendly-inclusive-vol...
