AGE ACTION SOUTH EAST

Empowerment and Regional Development
Empowerment and Regional Development is a major focus in our strategic thinking. It is a new term that we are using to cover the wide variety of activities that we undertake in mobilising and empowering older people at local and regional level and in expanding our work to cover the whole country. From the beginning, we tried to promote the active involvement of older people and close partnerships with other relevant organisations. Until recently, much of this work took the form of short-term discrete projects, largely determined by available funding through once off grants. From now on, we aim to focus contributing to the achievement long term and fundamental changes in the lives of older people largely through advocacy by older people and securing their right to comprehensive high quality services.  

Advocacy Programme

Advocacy, which is one of the cornerstones of the current development programme, can be defined as ‘making the case for someone or a group of people or helping them to express their own views, usually to defend their rights or to promote their interests. The concept has special relevance for people who are disadvantaged in some way and as a consequence are less able to speak for themselves’.

The advocacy programme in the South East Region will include a series of innovative pilot programmes to explore ways in which older people can participate effectively in the planning, operation and evaluation of services aimed at them. Advocacy, in our view, is a means of creating a dialogue between providers and users in which both sides can swap experiences and views and work out ways of resolving any difficulties or disputes that may emerge.

Advocacy must involve both providers and users, and both groups will require training and support in developing the appropriate attitudes and skills. The programme will include not only training but also monitoring and evaluation and continuing support. The programme will be carried out on a phased basis over three years in which local pilot programmes would be developed in key service areas and then building on the experience of these pilot areas advocacy will be gradually widened out to cover all services at County and regional levels involving a wide range of other voluntary groups. This pilot programme has been funded and supported by the HSE South East. We welcome their support in developing this programme and hope it will be followed by other regional programmes.

ACTIVITIES

• To promote and develop the role of advocacy, in partnership with older people, specifically in the area of health services.
• To highlight the right of older people to have a voice on issues of policy and the design and delivery of public health services.
• To help identify and facilitate access to mechanisms for advocacy where these exist in South-Eastern Services and to develop appropriate channels where they do not currently exist
• To assist older people to liaise effectively with staff of the Health Services and other service providers 

Age Action is curently represented on the following committee’s:

• Kilkenny Older Persons Network
• Carlow Older Persons Network
• Kilkenny “Champions for Older People” Group
• Carlow/Kilkenny Area Advisory Group 

For further information:

Lorraine Dorgan
Deputy CEO
Age Action Ireland,
30-31 Lower Camden Street,
Dublin 2. 

Phone: 01 4756989
Email: ceo@ageaction.ie