Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership is a local inter-agency based partnership aimed at improving the lives of Older People aged 50 years and over, living in the Ballymena, Larne & Carrickfergus areas.

Agewell is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, established in 2011.

Agewell’s vision is for “Mid & East Antrim to be a place where everyone can actively ‘agewell’ together, being involved, heard and valued.” 

We support Older People aged 50 years and over, in line with the United Nations definition of older age. 

Created prior to the Review of Public Administration, with initial support from Age NI, Agewell wanted to prioritise time to listening to Older People’s lived experiences to pursue opportunities that will improve the health and wellbeing for the ageing population in our community now and in the future.

AGEING WELL AND REACHING OUT 

In July 2013, Agewell were successfully secured funding from the Big Lottery Fund to launch our first flagship project.

In the first 3 years, we successfully built upon our initial network of 30 Older People groups to now regularly engages with over 120 Older People groups in the local community. We do this through quarterly themed meetings, bi-annual newsletters, an annual calendar, monthly community group e-zines and annual celebrations. 

AGEING WELL

Elements of this flagship project continue today, after successfully winning a tender with the Mid & East Antrim Borough Council (MEABC) Community Planning Partnership to deliver our “Ageing Well” services. This includes ‘Good Morning’ telephone befriending and the Mid & East Antrim Handyperson & Home Security service.

COMMUNITY NAVIGATOR

We also partner with Age NI to deliver the Community Navigator service which is funded by the Northern Health & Social Care Trust (NHSCT). 

This service allows us to work much closer with the NHSCT teams, and offer Older People and their families/carers as well as Health Care Professionals and Statutory agencies the opportunity to secure information on the wide range of support that is available via the community/ voluntary sector as well as join the dots between agencies. Click here to find out more about the Community Navigator.

IMPACTAgewell®

IMPACTAgewell®, is a community led, social prescribing programme which has been developed and delivered by a wide range of healthcare practitioners including GPs, Community Pharmacists, Social Work teams and commissioners, thanks to funding from The Dunhill Medical Trust and The Health & Social Care Board. Click here to find out more about IMPACTAgewell®.

Layout 1

SMALL BUT VITAL PROJECTS

As well as supporting the core projects, Agewell is well known for many of their smaller initiatives including for example, Retired Older Men Eating Out (an older men’s brunch club), Healthy Steps to Ageing (a Building Community Pharmacy Project to support Older People identified as being frail and in need of support) and most recently ‘Ready, Steady, Agewell’ (a small pilot encouraging Older People who are housebound to participate in regular activity through the use of an Amazon Echo Dot device).

PEACING AGES TOGETHER

In recent years, Agewell also led on delivering the Peace IV Older People’s Strand in partnership with MEABC, investing over £80,000 in 30 local community groups across Mid & East Antrim. This project finished in June 2019, with over 350 Older People sharing their experience and learning at a Celebration Event which ended with a Boogie Bouncing/ Conga Line Extravaganza. Click here to find out more about the project.