White, S., Hammond, M., 2015.
The Life of the City - Manchester City Centre, An age Friendly Neighbourhood?
| Output Type: | Report |
| Brief Description/Editor(s): | Commissioned by Manchester City Council |
| Publisher: | Manchester CIty Council |
| URL: | issuu.com/msa_projects/docs/lifeofthecity_exec_web |
This report was commissioned by Age-Friendly Manchester as part of their programme of work understanding and developing Manchester as an Age-Friendly City. As members of the World Health Organisation's Age-Friendly Cities programme, Manchester has undertaken a series of pioneering neighbourhood based pilot projects in Old Moat, Cheetham, Crumpsall, Whalley Range and Chorlton which looked, each in different ways, at how the WHO Age-Friendly
charter could be used to improve the lives of older people in individual
Manchester neighbourhoods. These Age-Friendly Neighbourhood projects explored how 'age-friendly' each of these residential areas were currently and how they might be made more age-friendly in the future. The experiences of older residents in these areas were recorded through discussions which considered eight key issues outlined in the WHO's Age-Friendly Cities charter: Built environment;Transport; Housing; Social participation; Respect and social inclusion; Civic participation and employment; Community support and health services; and Communication. This report explores how the city centre operates as a place to live for older people, investigating what 'neighbourhoods' exist and what they are like. The
context for these investigations begins with the fact that most larger cities in the UK are home to very few older people, yet globally cities are recommended as ideal places for people to live as they grow older.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [2] recommend the 'compact city' as the most socially and environmentally sustainable model for the future of cities in an urbanising world. As our urban populations grow and the proportion of older people in European countries increases, our city centres
present a concentration of resources and infrastructure which could be of great benefit for older people. This report begins by identifying where older people currently reside in and close to Manchester city centre. It explores the different lifestyles and experiences they have and how their residential locations contribute to their needs and desires for an age-friendly city.