The Elders Council was started by a group of older people who wanted to speak for themselves, rather than having others speak for them.  They knew the value of the experiences and insights that older people have and how this could be used in developing policy and practice.

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The Elders Council began life as an Older People’s Network, bringing together older people led from groups such as University of the Third Age and Action for Health – Senior Citizens in Newcastle. 

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In 1999 we were involved in a project called House for Life in which we worked as an advisory group on the adaptation of a semi-detached house to make it accessible and suitable for an older person.  The house was open as a show house for a few weeks to show members of the public and professionals what can be achieved by retrofitting a normal house.  The project demonstrated the power of the insights of older people to influencing change and laid the foundations for the work that was to come.

 

We were formally established as a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Registered Charity in 2007. 

 

Over the years we have pioneered a variety of approaches to enable older people to have a voice, in particular working through the arts to give creative expression to what matters to us. 

 

We championed Newcastle’s commitment to sign up to the World Health Organisations Age Friendly Cities and Communities Network and are active on Newcastle’s Age Friendly partnership group and the UK Network of Age Friendly Communities https://ageing-better.org.uk/uk-network-age-friendly-communities. 

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