Photographs and stories which reflect what older residents in Liverpool like and dislike about their local community in relation to respect and social inclusion went on display at the Museum of Liverpool in May.
`What is important to me as an older person?’ was an exhibition of photographs and accompanying narratives contributed by four groups of older people living in four contrasting areas of Liverpool and revealed the positive aspects of the city which enable them to feel valued and part of their community, and the negative aspects which may prevent this. Some of the photos identified what older people feel could be done to address some of the barriers that they identified.
Sara Ronzi, who undertook this project as part of her SPHR-funded PhD research, is exploring aspects of how to make cities better places to grow old in. Her research is related to SPHR’s ‘Age-friendly cities and towns’* project as part of the School’s Ageing Well research programme and is entitled ‘How can we make Liverpool a better place to grow old and where people feel valued and part of their community?’.
Sara, based at the University of Liverpool (part of the LiLaC collaboration) said: “This exhibition is an innovative way of engaging with older people and finding out from them what they consider to be important in terms of respect and social inclusion in Liverpool.
“This project is an innovative approach to engaging with older people themselves, and this is the first time that this approach to stimulate information exchange between the public and those responsible for the city and its services, has been applied to this context.
“The exhibition aims to create a platform to enable dialogue amongst older participants, researchers, and city stakeholders, and it is hoped that the research findings from this project will be used to stimulate policy change that better reflect the needs of local older people”
`What is important to me as an older person’ was on display on 11, May 2015 from 12:00 – 16.00 in the Museum of Liverpool.
The event included presentations from the University of Liverpool, National Museums and Liverpool and Liverpool City Council.
* Age-friendly cities are communities which create physical and social environments to support older people to age healthily.
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Ageing