New Year message

2011 promises to be an exciting and challenging year for Age Cymru, as the charity's Director of Influencing and Programme Development, Victoria Lloyd, says:  

"We will shortly be launching Age Cymru Older People's Consultative Forum to ensure that our work is directly informed and influenced by older people.

"The Forum will advise on the development and implementation of the charity's policy positions on ageing and older people and provide feedback about Age Cymru's key activities to help us monitor and review our work.

"In the build-up to the elections to the National Assembly for Wales in May, we will be campaigning to ensure that the issues affecting older people across Wales, both today and in the future, are high political priorities.

"We need to create a Wales in which older people are valued, respected and cared for; have equal access to services; and are empowered to play a full and active part in society. 

"Statistically, older people are much more likely to use their vote than other age groups, and we will work to make sure that the politicians are hearing what older people have to say.

"Whilst much has been achieved for older people in recent years there is still a considerable amount do in tackling outdated ageist attitudes and in combating ill-health and poverty among older people in Wales.

"One of our key challenges throughout 2011 will be to monitor how tighter public spending is affecting older people. We will seek to act immediately to highlight and campaign against any disproportionate impacts. The year ahead promises to be a busy one - we look forward to meeting the challenge."'