Age UK Barnet Wellbeing Day
On Friday 20 July 2018 Aniksha, Nick and I attended an Age UK Barnet wellbeing day, the theme was raising awareness of scams for seniors. According to recent reports there has been a huge increase when it comes to scammers targeting elderly people. Therefore, Age UK Barnet is taking action and created this wellbeing day.
Just this month Twining Enterprise signed a partnership agreement with Age UK Barnet, where Twining Enterprise will be their first port of call for employment support when it comes to seniors. The Age UK Barnet wellbeing day featured various stalls representing employers such as Sainsbury’s, Boost Charity, City of London, the Police, Trading Standards, Alzheimer’s Society, Citizens Advice and Barnet Homes. There was a good turnout for this event and activities such as tai chi, soft tennis and dancing really made sure those attending had a fun and useful day as well as learning about how to avoid scamming and other wellbeing tips.
Through our attendance at the event we made a lot of connections within the local senior community and we were fortunate to speak to Citizens Advice Bureau who will be speaking directly to Age UK Barnet and so will also be passing on referrals to us for people looking for employment support. The day was very uplifting and very inspiring to see that just because you have come to a certain age and approaching retirement age or retired that life has not come to an end and if you wish to work part-time or full-time then you have options we can help you explore.
Aniksha Patel our Employer Engagement Manager who is well placed to liaise with Age UK Barnet and the older people that they support about realistic approaches to support seniors working in society. Nick Giscombe who leads our team of Employment Specialists in Barnet said:
Mental health is an important subject to talk about, but it can sometimes feel uncomfortable for people to start discussing. It is an important subject, and on the day we were able to tell people about Twining Enterprise and what we do as an organisation and people were able to open up slightly about their own issues, and the support they were looking for.The event was good, and should be repeated again with 50+ clients in mind.
Our team were able to capture referrals and make good links with other organisations in the community.
We could all see the frustration, the passion and the motivation that many of the older people attending had in wanting to find employment that suited their needs and life stage. Working with Age UK Barnet to form a partnership has been inspiring so far, in particular, because of the manager for the Barnet site, Jenny. Jenny, is herself aged 55 had shared that Age UK Barnet has come on vastly in a short space of time that a recent short course programme she ran of a month teaching cookery specifically for men over 50, they were delighted that they had been inundated with applications. It’s always good to know your service is wanted and our attendance at the day showed that many of Age UK Barnet’s clients need Twining Enterprise’s support to find suitable employment!
We have over 700 people engaged in activities to improve their work readiness through our Building Better Opportunities funded IPS Works programme in London. Over a quarter, 28.5% of those clients are people aged over 50, and here at Twining we feel it would be a breakthrough for us and our clients if we can work with Age UK Barnet to ensure we provide the right support to those who are motivated to work as well as encouraging older people with mental health services to see employment as a real option for them.
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