Our age friendly strategy
In 2012, we adopted an age friendly strategy, which sets out what we need to do to meet the needs of older people while improving their quality of life.
The six key themes of the strategy are:
1. Age-friendly organisation, including age-friendly employer
2. Specialist housing
3. Lifetime homes and adaptations
4. Information
5. Services
6. Lifetime neighbourhoods
Learn more about our age friendly strategy:
Download our age friendly strategy
Our age friendly projects
Cohousing research project
We’re working in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, with funding from Dunhill Medical Trust, to explore cohousing as an option for social housing in South Manchester.
This research aims to create collaborative partnerships between older people, registered social housing providers and academic researchers to improve the experience of ageing in social housing.
We’re looking for residents aged 50 and over with an interest in cohousing to form a steering group to help shape this exciting project.
Learn more about cohousing and how to get involved.
Ageing in Place Pathfinder
We're working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Manchester School of Architecture and nine lead organisations to create strong and supportive neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester.
This project aims to improve connection, health and wellbeing in later life, letting older people’s voices and lived experiences do the talking when it comes to ageing well and overcoming inequalities. It asks three core questions:
- What is it like to live around here?
- What could make it better?
- How can we work together?
Southway has been the lead organisation for Abbey Hey, Manchester on the Ageing in Place Pathfinder project since 2022.
Watch the videos below to find out how we're impacting the lives of older people in Abbey Hey.
Download your age friendly map of Gorton and Abbey
This map includes four age friendly walking routes co-created with older residents, plus the locations of age friendly facilities and major landmarks in our community.
To learn more, read GMCA’s webpage in the Ageing in Place Pathfinder Project
Take a Seat Campaign
Our Take a Seat campaign partners with local shops and businesses to provide clearly marked, friendly places where older people can take a break. This improves accessibility and helps people feel more confident and connected while they’re out and about.
This scheme has expanded beyond South Manchester, partnering with Manchester City Council and other local authorities, to make shopping more accessible for older people within the Manchester community.
If you’re a local shop or business and want to get involved, download our templates and guidelines below:
Burnage Age Friendly Project
In 2016, Southway launched the Age Friendly Burnage Project after being chosen as an Ambition for Ageing programme neighbourhood funded by the Big Lottery.
Between then and 2020, we:
- Created a resident-led board that met every six weeks and managed funding awarded to Burnage, to supports new projects designed by local older residents
- £35,000 was spent on age-friendly projects
- Over 100 people benefited from craft workshops, history classes and bereavement support
We also carried out local research into transport, social inclusion and housing, which helped us identify specific areas for improvement and develop a clear action plan.
Download the research folio and action plan
Download the research plan
Old Moat Age Friendly Project
In 2012, we launched the Old Moat Age Friendly Project in partnership with the Valuing Older People partnership.
In this project, the University of Manchester, Manchester School of Architecture and Leech Rhodes Walker Architects explored the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and healthy ageing in communities like Old Moat.
Learn more:
