Age Friendly Campus
Piloting the Age Friendly Initiative in NUI Galway
This experiential and community engaged opportunity connects with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:
- 10 - Reduced Inequalities
- 17 - Partnership for the Goals
Student of Applied Social Sciences, Dara Kerins began his placement with the CKI at NUI Galway ALIVE volunteering programme in January 2020. He became involved with the Age Friendly Campus Programme which was piloting that semester that aimed to ensure the University is an accessible place for older people. Dara reminds us that “there are no walls around the University so it’s available for anyone to use”. The Age Friendly Campus pilot aimed to create the groundwork to become an established initiative within NUI Galway.
The initiative was inspired by The Age Friendly Ireland Programme which was set up by the Department of Health in 2014. This Programme strived to ensure that Ireland was an accessible and inclusive place for older people. The Programme is carried out locally, with Galway specifically referencing the accessibility of the University within their strategy. Five Biomedical students became involved in the Age Friendly Campus Programme as part of a service-learning module, aiming to connect their classroom theory and learning to the community. The students, the ALIVE team and the Old Age Council joined forces to begin work on the Age Friendly Campus Initiative.
The programme was run over 10 weeks, with 5 events centred around 3 main activities. The first event was a walk around campus, where the students met the older people and acted as tour guides. They showed the older participants buildings and points of interest, which may be useful for future events on campus. The idea of the walk was to open up the University as a resource available to them.
The second set of events were computer and text skills classes. As a response to reports emerging from the Older Persons' Council regarding the difficulties that many members of the older community have had in taking full advantage of new technologies, Dara says that the classes aimed to develop their skills in day to day technology tasks such as calling a friend or internet banking. The one-hour classes offered the participants time to bring in their own devices and ask any questions they may have. The classes were so successful that many of the older people asked could they be continued on a regular basis.
The third event invited Professor Kieran Walsh in Social Gerontology, to talk to the participants about the research being undertaken in the University and particularly the Institute for Lifecourse and Society for Social Science research.
Dara emphasises the importance of communication when running a community initiative, particularly with this community. Word of mouth proved vital as the programme started with two participants and the last event was attended by over 20. The Older Persons council helped the Age Friendly Campus programme with their links to various groups. Dara expresses that the experience for all partners was entirely positive. All those participating shared the same goals which was to contribute to community where everyone can participate fully. He says, as a student, the benefits of participating in the Age Friendly Campus programme allowed him to use the knowledge he has gained over the last three years in University.
"To be given an opportunity to actually get out there and do something positive was probably the best thing about it”.
Built with Shorthand