- Community organisations have been found to play a key role in supporting inclusive ageing
- The cumulative impact of racism across a person's life can shape their quality of life, with fears around safety and availability of infrastructure contributing to loneliness and isolation
- Racially minoritised older people feel strongly connected to place, and want to find meaningful ways to shape their communities
A newly published briefing from the Ethnicity and Inclusive Ageing study provides recommendations for promoting inclusive ageing. This includes improving support for community organisations, which act as ‘anchors of inclusive ageing.’
Discussions around the UK’s ageing population often fail to account for the increasing diversity of older age groups. The three year ESRC-funded project, led by Professor Majella Kilkey from the University of Sheffield’s School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations, with Azizzum Akhtar (REMA), Dr Matt Bennett (Birmingham), Dr Jo Britton, Dr Dan Holman, Dr Mark Green (Liverpool), Dr Lois Orton, Dr Aneta Piekut, Olivier Tsemo (SADACCA) and Professor Alan Walker, examined experiences of inclusion and exclusion among older people from racially minoritised groups in Sheffield and Rotherham.
Working with community researchers, the project engaged 80 older people from diverse backgrounds in walking and life-history interviews which revealed:
- The cumulative impact of racism across a person's life can shape their quality of life, with fears around safety contributing to loneliness and isolation
- Participants shared concerns around racism, safety, and accessible public transport, as well as the overall lack of affordable social spaces, as contributing factors to feelings of isolation
- Racially minoritised older people feel strongly connected to place, and want to find meaningful ways to shape their communities
- Community organisations play a key role in supporting inclusive ageing
In response, the research provides recommendations for building inclusive communities. The recommendations include: consulting older people from racially minoritised groups in local service design; providing affordable and inclusive spaces; and supporting opportunities for creative activities which foster mutual understanding between people from different age groups and backgrounds.
Community organisations were found to play an important role as ‘anchors of inclusive ageing’ offering a sense of connection within local communities, but struggled to access sustainable funding. Through the project, researchers helped Sheffield and District African and Caribbean Community Association secure funding to provide community day care.
Creative participatory methods brought older people from a diverse range of backgrounds together for arts based workshops, enabling them to share their stories at exhibitions, poetry, performances and films that are available to watch on the Sheffield Player.