Louth Age Friendly County Brand

Initiative title: Louth Age-Friendly County Brand Reach: County:

[ ] Local Louth

[ ] National

Theme:

[  ] Lead healthier & active lives for longer [  ] Stay living in our own homes and communities [ ] Get to where we need to go, when we need to [ ] Be enabled by the built and social environment [ ] Feel and be safe at home and out and about [  ] Have the information we need to live full lives [ ] Be truly valued and respected [  ] Participate in social, economic and public life [ ] Continue to learn, develop and work

Contact: Dundalk

Mary Deery, Louth County Council, County Hall, 042 93 24 389 Mobile 086 803 2686

Website:

www.louthagefriendlycounty.ie

Issue/ Opportunity: As with most counties Louth has many private, public and volunteer services delivering quality services and products for older people. The problem identified by older people was that they did not know where to find them. Both the Louth AFA and the LOPF simultaneously decided that the Louth Age Friendly County needed to design an independent brand which would gather services under it and promote them not only to

older people but also those people engaging with older people. The brand would only be successful if it was complimented by a successful communications strategy.

What was done: The Louth Age Friendly Communications Group was formed with key IT people from Louth County Council, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Louth Leader Partnership, HSE North East and older people. The objective included the design of an independent brand, a website and a communications strategy that would promote Age Friendly products and services.

There were over 50 workshops held in Louth during the consultation phase of the Louth Age Friendly County Strategy. Feedback from all of the workshops was easily aligned to the 8 Framework Programme Areas of the WHO Age Friendly Cities Guidelines. It soon became apparent that the brand would need to reflect this. An unexpected fascinating outcome came from the LAFC Communications Group in the form of enthusiasm, creativity, gaiety, and a zest for information coupled with the need to disseminate it as far as possible for the betterment of older people. That enthusiasm emanated from the older people in the group. From that the idea of the 8 petals representing the 8 WHO Framework Programme areas emerged. The thinking included the potential of pollination of ideas, cross pollination and all petals attached to each other for support. During this process the group realised that the sharing of information was imperative and hence the title of the Louth Age Friendly County Initiative emerged “Sharing the Journey”.

“Sharing the Journey” captured the core principles and ethos of the Louth Age Friendly Initiative. The strap line used in communicating this message is “The Participation of Older People in a Partnership approach enriches Innovation”. The level of collaboration has changed and evolved due to various reasons but the underlying commitment to collaborate across and within the sectors has remained strong.

Key achievements: “Sharing the Journey” won one of 20 Excellence in Public Service Awards presented by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny in June 2012.

The Louth Age Friendly County Brand was adopted by Ageing Well Network and now is used in all of the subsequent counties which developed Age Friendly Programmes.

A DVD “Sharing the Journey” was developed to present to the WHO Age Friendly Cities Network held in Ireland in Sept 2011.

The key outcome was the learning that “Process far outweighs Product” and when you get the process right the product WILL be Innovative.

For further information please go to www.louthagefrienldycounty.ie