Our age friendly strategy
In 2012, we adopted an age friendly strategy, which sets out what we need to do to meet the needs of older people while improving their quality of life.
The six key themes of the strategy are:
Our strategy
Learn more about our age friendly strategy and read our brochure.
Abbey Hey walking community group
Take a stroll with the Abbey Hey walking community group.
We're working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Manchester School of Architecture and nine lead organisations to create strong and supportive neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester.
This project aims to improve connection, health and wellbeing in later life, letting older people’s voices and lived experiences do the talking when it comes to ageing well and overcoming inequalities. It asks three core questions:
- What is it like to live around here?
- What could make it better?
- How can we work together?
Southway has been the lead organisation for Abbey Hey, Manchester on the Ageing in Place Pathfinder project since 2022.
Download your age friendly map of Gorton and Abbey
This map includes four age friendly walking routes co-created with older residents, plus the locations of age friendly facilities and major landmarks in our community.
To learn more, read GMCA’s webpage in the Ageing in Place Pathfinder Project.
Our Take a Seat campaign partners with local shops and businesses to provide clearly marked, friendly places where older people can take a break. This improves accessibility and helps people feel more confident and connected while they’re out and about.
This scheme has expanded beyond South Manchester, partnering with Manchester City Council and other local authorities, to make shopping more accessible for older people within the Manchester community.
In 2016, Southway launched the Age Friendly Burnage Project after being chosen as an Ambition for Ageing programme neighbourhood funded by the Big Lottery.
Between then and 2020, we:
- Created a resident-led board that met every six weeks and managed funding awarded to Burnage, to support new projects designed by local older residents
- £35,000 was spent on age-friendly projects
- Over 100 people benefited from craft workshops, history classes and bereavement support
We also carried out local research into transport, social inclusion and housing, which helped us identify specific areas for improvement and develop a clear action plan.
Old Moat Age Friendly Project
In 2012, we launched the Old Moat Age Friendly Project in partnership with the Valuing Older People partnership.
In this project, the University of Manchester, Manchester School of Architecture and Leech Rhodes Walker Architects explored the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and healthy ageing in communities like Old Moat.
The importance of place
Watch our video on the importance of place at Abbey Hey in Gorton.
