Notts Network Lecture
'Your U3A - A Community Asset?'
On the 1st of October 2012 Dr Alex McMinn, formerly an International Medical Education Consultant with the World Health Organisation, and a member and past chairman of Aughton and Ormskirk U3A, gave the first Nottinghamshire U3A Network lecture at the Richard Herrod Centre, Carlton, Nottingham. Alex’s theme was the wider role that U3As and U3A members are encouraged to play in their communities by the Third Age Trust (TAT). He had an important message delivered with clarity and wit.
Whilst the full slide presentation is available below, the following brief summary should help your understanding:
The lecture started with Alex stressing the importance of the improved sense of wellbeing that can be achieved through voluntary service within the community. Volunteering helps prevent the loss of self-worth after retirement. Along with mental activity, physical activity and social interaction, volunteering can help sustain wellbeing in later life. He advocates a systematic approach to the encouragement of volunteering within the U3A movement, both nationally and locally.
He explained that the aims and principles of the TAT include a section on ‘Reaching Out’ to the wider community in areas such as:
· promoting the benefits of learning in later life,
· keeping in touch with people who can no longer fully take part in U3A activities,
· collaborating with institutions such as libraries and museums for mutual benefit,
· engaging with local and national government to influence learning policies.
Alex has responsibility for Reaching Out within his U3A. The U3A was formed around 10 years ago and now has approaching 3,000 members (with a suitable organisational structure to support this number). He described how the TAT Reaching Out aims and principles are being applied in his U3A. For example U3A members are county councillors, borough councillors, and serve on health and voluntary services committees. The U3A is involved in a number of special projects, the highest profile being the development of the ‘Memory Course’ which is now being taken forward by over 100 U3As. There is a ‘Tele-Link’ project aimed at enabling the housebound to conduct U3A group activities remotely using ipads. There are collaborations with Lancashire County Council on preventing loneliness, and with the Central Lancashire Health Authority on dementia prevention. The U3A are partners in the Brookside ‘extra care’ retirement housing development in Ormskirk.
Aughton and Ormskirk U3A received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2008.
Alex’s PowerPoint Slideshow:
Of course, the the slides can only do so much without the elucidation which Alex gave in his talk. However, taken with the summary above, we hope you will distil from them much of the message that Alex presented.
Whilst the full slide presentation is available below, the following brief summary should help your understanding:
The lecture started with Alex stressing the importance of the improved sense of wellbeing that can be achieved through voluntary service within the community. Volunteering helps prevent the loss of self-worth after retirement. Along with mental activity, physical activity and social interaction, volunteering can help sustain wellbeing in later life. He advocates a systematic approach to the encouragement of volunteering within the U3A movement, both nationally and locally.
He explained that the aims and principles of the TAT include a section on ‘Reaching Out’ to the wider community in areas such as:
· promoting the benefits of learning in later life,
· keeping in touch with people who can no longer fully take part in U3A activities,
· collaborating with institutions such as libraries and museums for mutual benefit,
· engaging with local and national government to influence learning policies.
Alex has responsibility for Reaching Out within his U3A. The U3A was formed around 10 years ago and now has approaching 3,000 members (with a suitable organisational structure to support this number). He described how the TAT Reaching Out aims and principles are being applied in his U3A. For example U3A members are county councillors, borough councillors, and serve on health and voluntary services committees. The U3A is involved in a number of special projects, the highest profile being the development of the ‘Memory Course’ which is now being taken forward by over 100 U3As. There is a ‘Tele-Link’ project aimed at enabling the housebound to conduct U3A group activities remotely using ipads. There are collaborations with Lancashire County Council on preventing loneliness, and with the Central Lancashire Health Authority on dementia prevention. The U3A are partners in the Brookside ‘extra care’ retirement housing development in Ormskirk.
Aughton and Ormskirk U3A received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2008.
Alex’s PowerPoint Slideshow:
Of course, the the slides can only do so much without the elucidation which Alex gave in his talk. However, taken with the summary above, we hope you will distil from them much of the message that Alex presented.
if you cannot see the presentation click 'Download File' below to view as pdf.
| youru3a-acommunityasset-slides1-34.pdf |
