Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme Handbook 2014
Appendix Chapter 3
Sample Press Release for Launching Age Friendly Strategy
Dublin Aims To Be an Age Friendly Capital City
The Dublin City Age Friendly Strategy 2014 - 2019 is an initiative designed to
create a capital city where older people are valued and respected. It seeks to
improve the quality of lives of people over the age of 55 in Dublin city. This
strategy is being implemented by the Dublin City Age Friendly Alliance. This
Alliance is an inter-agency group, led by Dublin City Council. This is part of a
national Age Friendly Cities and Counties Programme spear headed by Age
Friendly Ireland.
Dublin’s Lord Mayor Christy Burke, will launch this initiative on Wednesday 10 th
September 2014 at 3pm in City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2. The Lord Mayor will
be joined at the launch by fellow speakers Minister Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister
of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for Primary Care, Social
Care (Disability and Older People) and Mental Health, and Ms. Ellen Reddin, a
representative older person who sits on the Older Person’s Council in the North
West area of Dublin City.
Lord Mayor Christy Burke, Chair of the Dublin City Age Friendly Alliance said,
“An age friendly capital city is an aspiration which must be realised. As statistics
show our older population is increasing which has major implications for service
providers and the long term planning of Dublin city. I am very pleased that Dublin
City Council in conjunction with its key statutory, private and community partners
are so actively involved in implementing Dublin City’s Age Friendly Strategy.
This is Dublin’s opportunity to have consideration for our older citizens and to
learn from their life experience.”
Minister Lynch said, “In 2013 the Government published the National Positive
Ageing Strategy and launched Healthy Ireland, a national framework that aims to
increase the health and wellbeing of people at all stages of life, including old age.
Positive ageing and healthy ageing are in everyone’s interest and the Dublin City
Age Friendly Strategy is one of the many ways that we as a society will realise the
aims and aspirations of these two vital national documents. I am heartened to see
the high level of partnership involvement from the public, private and community
and voluntary sectors in this initiative. A partnership that I know is being reflected
in other counties and cities around Ireland. I wish Age Friendly Ireland and the
Age Friendly City and Counties 92 Programme continued success. The
Government is fully committed to supporting and encouraging all stakeholders in
this journey.”
The Dublin Age Friendly City Programme was established in February 2013. The
Dublin City Age Friendly Alliance, an inter-agency planning Alliance, has been
established to oversee the implementation of the initiative at city level. The
programme is being rolled out via local alliances, in each of the five Dublin City
Council’s administrative areas in the city. Each Alliance comprises statutory,
nonstatutory, voluntary, educational and business groups and is led by Dublin City
Council. Older people will also be represented on each Alliance through the Older
Peoples Councils.
Dublin City Age Friendly Strategy 2014 – 2019 sets out specific actions to be
taken under nine Strategic Goals that target areas designed to improve the quality
of life of older people in Dublin city. This strategy is a direct response to the views
gathered from 1500 older people over the age of 55 years in Dublin city. The
model has been adopted from the World Health Organisation’s model of Age
Friendly Cities and Communities Programme. This is part of the national roll out
of Age Friendly Cities and Communities by Age Friendly Ireland.
The Dublin City Age Friendly Strategy 2014 – 2019 will be available from
Wednesday 10th September 2014 on http://www.dublincity.ie/agefriendlycity