Activity Buddies: Promoting quality of life for older people together

Many older people experience a decline in their level of engagement with activities in post retirement years which can lead to a decline in self-esteem, confidence and belief in their own abilities and skills. The Activity Buddies project aimed to promote older people to challenge these concerns alongside students, staff and local voluntary organisations.

A Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) grant through a university wide, South East Coastal Communities (SECC) funded a number of Community of Practices (CoP) projects including a pilot and main project, Activity Buddies, drawing on co-production with partners at Age Concern Eastbourne,Queen Alexandra Cottage Homes, The local older people’s community, WRVS (Women's Royal Voluntary Service) Shoreham and Age UK Brighton, Hove and Portslade.

An initial intergenerational pilot project 2006 enabled staff and students to collaborate across different faculties to develop projects with older people which promoted quality of life, to encourage inter-disciplinary and cross-sector learning to share skills, expertise and knowledge (Moore et al 2007).

Funded £20,000 by Brighton and Sussex Community Knowledge Exchange (BSCKE), university students volunteered to work on projects together with older people.

Benefits included personal and professional learning from each other, students’ greater understanding of the ageing experience, and the positive emotional effects of volunteering.

Three programmes were carried out at this stage:
> Fitness for health (involving physiotherapy students);
> A secret history of holidays (involving service sector management students) and
> Dispensing with the mystery (Pharmacy students)

The SECC funding then provided the project team with the opportunity to build and develop further successful intergenerational models for shared learning and research opportunities.

The project continued to have the aim of developing activities to focus on improving health and wellbeing of older people in the local older people’s community that might fall into the ‘vulnerable’ and ‘hard to reach’ groups.

The 'Activity Buddies: promoting quality of life for older people together' was an extension of the successful work carried out by University of Brighton staff and local community organisations in the initial Activity Buddies: quality of life for older people’s project.

Activity Buddies was an opportunity for students and older people to engage in activities related to the student’s subject area. This buddy relationship involved engaging mental abilities and skills as well as health related physical activities, which ultimately have purpose and meaning to the individuals or group.

The project provided an opportunity that enabled older people, students and staff to benefit from each other’s expertise and knowledge.

Improved self-esteem and confidence in carrying out different activities as well as highlighting best practices and positive approaches to staying active in post retirement years.

The project challenged age-related stereotypes at both end of the age spectrum. Students had an increased awareness of age-related issues, which gave them understanding and better-prepared students for their chosen professional careers. It provided an opportunity that enabled older people, students and staff to benefit from each other’s expertise and knowledge.

The project findings highlighted a positive impact on students learning opportunities to apply their knowledge within a community setting. Providing opportunities to better understand the issues related to ageing and the concerns and barriers older people might have in accessing advice, information or access to health care, activities generally. The project also strengthened working relationships with local voluntary agencies and has provided a solid foundation to further collaborative research projects being developed.