A short collection of essays from practitioners in creative ageing about what a future agenda for the movement might look like.
From the abstract:
The term “creative aging,” in the broadest sense, describes an aging policy idea that focuses on highlighting the creativity of older adults in order to prepare individuals and communities to manage old age. Programs focus on the evolution of creativity over the lifespan and aim to provide meaningful participatory engagement, especially through the arts.
From the abstract:
Social entrepreneurship is usually understood as an economic activity which focuses at social values, goals, and investments that generates surpluses for social entrepreneurs as individuals, groups, and startups who are working for the benefit of communities, instead of strictly focusing mainly at the financial profit, economic values, and the benefit generated for shareholders or owners. Social entrepreneurship combines the production of goods, services, and knowledge in order to achieve both social and economic goals and allow for solidarity building.
From a broader perspective, entities that are focused on social entrepreneurship are identified as parts of the social and solidarity economy. These are, for example, social enterprises, cooperatives, mutual organizations, self-help groups, charities, unions, fair trade companies, community enterprises, and time banks. Social innovation is a key element of social entrepreneurship.
Social innovation is usually understood as new strategies, concepts, products, services, and organizational forms that allow for the satisfaction of needs. Such innovations are created in particular in the contact areas of various sectors of the social system. For example, these are spaces between the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. These innovations not only allow the solving of problems but also extend possibilities for public action.
This post on the website of LinkAGES, a Denver based foundation that supports intergenerational initiatives, provides an excellent overview of “Unboxed,” a digital intergenerational storytelling program for LGBTQ+ participants. Developed by the Denver Public Library in collaboration with the local branch of StoryCenter, the program brought together older LGBTQ+ adults with teens who also identified as LGBTQ+. Through learning about storytelling techniques from facilitators, who also identified as LGBTQ+, participants created and told their own life stories. The post includes testimony from one of the older participants that emphasizes the value of the program in building a cross-age LGBTQ+ community in Denver.
This 2019 announcement from The Baring Foundation outlines a major new investment in creative aging in the form of a three year grant to launch a new national support agency. The announcement describes the background, rationale, and support structure for the agency to be housed at the Manchester Museum. It re-affirms the fundamental principle underlying The Baring Foundation’s Creative Aging funding which supports the statement, “the opportunity to be creative and to experience arts and culture is a right at any age.”
This short report includes eleven case studies of creative ageing projects in the UK which set out to engage sections of the older population that are often under-served by arts and cultural organisations, including organisations working with older people from LGBTIQ communities and from ethnic minority communities.
From the report details:
A highly popular collection of 50 creative activities for use in any setting with older people. Contributed by arts organisations and artists across the UK.