Faith Spaces and Age-Friendly Cities and Communities

What’s on offer?

This invitation-only interfaith workshop will explore how faith-based spaces and organisations are involved in promoting healthy ageing.

Working with participants of an existing project into the role of faith spaces in age-friendly cities, researchers and members of different faith communities will use a Ketso toolkit to reflect on the existing Age-friendly Cities Framework created by the World Health Organization to help identify and address barriers to well-being and participation of older people.

The discussion will be followed by a hands-on craft activity where participants will add their insights to co-create some pages of a project zine based on their interpretation of what age-friendly means for them.

The aim is to discuss how different faith spaces contribute to creating age-friendly cities. We will also explore the different experiences of ageing within different faith communities and for people from different ethnic backgrounds.

What’s it about?

This event builds on our current research on Faith Spaces and Older People. Specifically, the research is interested in the role of religious spaces as social infrastructure. To that end, the research is mapping how such spaces support older people’s wellbeing by providing social connections, spiritual fulfilment, and physical interaction.

We are also interested in the important role of older people in managing the services provided in faith spaces and in transmitting knowledge that younger generations have limited access to including particular rituals, songs, foods and other culture-specific practices.

Who’s leading the event?

Dr Luciana Lang, Manchester Institute of Collaborative Research on Aging (MICRA), University of Manchester

Dr Sophie Yarker, Manchester Institute of Collaborative Research on Aging (MICRA), University of Manchester

Open to

This event is working with existing participants in an ongoing research project and is by invitation only.

If you are interested in finding out more about this research project, please contact luciana.lang@manchester.ac.uk