Charities & social enterprises: Transform Ageing

Social entrepreneurs are being challenged to ‘Transform Ageing’ in the South West

Transform Ageing is taking a design-led approach to enhancing people’s experience of ageing in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. It aims to give people in later life more choice and better services to improve their quality of life.

Following four launch events across the South West in April, around 100 people attended in a series of four in-depth workshops at each location over the summer to ‘explore the challenge’. The groups included people in later life, social entrepreneurs and staff from local health organisations and councils.

The findings from the workshops were collated with further community research and ethnographic insight, and shaped into six ‘innovation briefs’. Innovators are being invited to come forward with solutions to meet the six challenges.

Their creative expertise will help people to remain independent, develop and maintain social connections, be better informed, build confidence and resilience to deal with life transitions, and offer better support for carers.

You can find out more about the programme on the Design Council website. To find out more about the innovation briefs and to apply, take a look at UnLtd's blog on the five things social entrepreneurs need to know about Transform Ageing.

Transform Ageing was awarded £3.65m from the Big Lottery Fund and is being delivered through a partnership led by Design Council, together with UnLtd - the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, the South West Academic Health Science Network, and the Centre for Ageing Better. It is also being supported locally on the ground by Volunteer Cornwall, Devon Communities Together, Community Council for Somerset and Torbay Community Development Trust.

Here are some of the comments from people who took part in the design workshops:

‘An excellent programme, thought-provoking and fast-paced.’

‘I think it was very useful to have a mix of older people and carers with professionals. It was good to hear each other’s views and thoughts.’

‘It has been very interesting being part of the design process.’