2nd Intense Sharing of Good Practices by Louth

On Thursday the 27th May, Louth EU_SHAFE hosted a webinar, “Can IT unITe us”?, which was attended by the EU-SHAFE partners, politicians and age friendly activists from Ireland and across Europe. The webinar was moderated by Sinead Hussey, RTE’s North East Correspondent and was an engaging and interesting event showcased Irish and European good practices in the field of social participation with a mix of videos and presentation. Drogheda and District Support 4 Older People, as the Louth EU_SHAFE nominated good practiced was highlighted by a video and an evaluation presented by Suzanne Smith, Centre Manager, Netwell/CASALA, Dundalk Institute of Technology. Other presentations on the day focused on how policies address social participation with a presentation from Claudia Fernandez Rivera from TU Dublin comparing the policies from all of the EU_SHAFE partner regions while Conall McGettigan of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly focused on future Irish policy.

The central highlight of the day was the panel discussion, “How do we advance social participation through technology”? The panellists were Joan Martin, CE of Louth County Council and President of the Covenant on Demographic Change, Sean Moynihan, CE of ALONE and Vicky Harris, Head of Programmes, Age Action Ireland and Philip Hogan, Cliffrun Media and Declan Murphy, Isaac and myhomecare. The depth of experience of the panellists in the field of social participation provided for an interesting and lively discussion with a wide range of questions from Covid-19 and social participation to how policy can best aid social participation among older people. Joan Martin, CE Louth County Council, stated “The most important policy measure that could be implemented in the space of Smart Health Age Friendly Environments by authorities is that the age friendly concept should become a mindset”.