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At long last spring is in the air and I hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable May Day Bank holiday. I know it may seem rather early but Age Friendly Nottingham is already busy making plans for celebrating International Older People's Day on 1st October 2016.  We would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or are planning an event. Councillor Eunice Campbell Nottingham Older Citizen's Champion

Photographs please...

If anyone has any photos of older people enjoying life and the participants are happy for them to appear in the Age Friendly Nottingham Bulletin please contact clare.routledge@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

Bestwood Male Voice Choir

What are you doing this Saturday evening? Come to a very special evening of music provided by Bestwood Male Voice Choir, with additional solo performances from Jeneba and Konya Kanneh-Mason, all in the beautiful surroundings of St Mary’s Church, High Pavement, Nottingham NG1 1HN. Refreshments will be available in the interval. The concert will raise money for the work of Age UK Notts throughout the city and county. Date: 7th May Time: 7:30pm Tickets:  Available at Age UK Notts Bradbury House reception or on the door and are priced at £10 per person.

Cheaper tram fares to the Cornerhouse

Tram passengers are being offered cheaper fares to the Cornerhouse. The tram network, Nottingham Express Transit, has joined forces with the leisure complex to give Cornerhouse card holders a discounted ride. With immediate affect, passengers can buy a £2 event ticket for return travel to the venue after 5.00 pm Monday to Thursday each week. Normal adult return fares are £3.50.

Golden Age Dance the Playhouse

Every Wednesday at 1.30 - 3.00, until Wednesday 18 May 2016 Join a fun, lively and friendly dance session for those aged 55+ who want to learn new skills, keep active and meet new people. Sessions are run by local dance artist Sara Lim Smith, as part of Playhouse Golden Age  and priced at £6.00 per session. No previous experience needed! To book a place in any of our Golden Age sessions please call our Box Office on 0115 941 9419 or visit us in person. If you would love to be involved in Golden Age but feel that you cannot meet the weekly costs, we have a small number of bursaries available for each group, where either all or some of the costs are met by the met by the Playhouse. To find out more about bursary places contact: rebeccaj@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Clifton Central 'Flower' Park

Clifton Central Park is holding a Fun on the Park afternoon on Saturday 14 May, 1.00 - 3.00. Activities will include circus skills, sports activiites, bouncy castle and much more. You will also have the opportunity to tell the Park and Open Spaces team what improvements you would like to see in Clifton Central Park.

The Royal Voluntary Service Sheds Grant Fund

The Royal Voluntary Service have launched a Sheds Grant Fund – aimed at recently new and just forming Sheds to support local communities to create their own community spaces to craft, grow and build. Sheds are community workshop spaces where people can come together to take part in practical skills and activities. They are designed and run by their members and provide opportunities for people to share tools, resources and skills in order to create, learn and develop social networks. Grants of between £250 and £1,000 are available from the Sheds Grant Fund– with applicants encouraged to apply for some of the tools and equipment they need for their activities or ongoing costs such as help with their rent or insurance. All applications need to come from constituted community groups and must be submitted by the deadline of Sunday 3rd July to be considered. Further details are available here, and the publicity poster here.

Rally Round your friends and family

Rally Round is a free online service in Nottingham that is helping people stay in their homes for longer, improve health and wellbeing and reduce isolation.  Family, friends and carers are invited to join a private support network where opportunities to help the individual are listed.

Rally Round is provided free of charge. So if you are a resident of Nottingham City or if you care for someone who is a resident of Nottingham City, then you can create a support network using a Rally Round account.

For more information go to www.rallyroundme.com/nottingham

Supporting patients' choices to avoid long hospital stays

NHS England and the Local Government Association have published the  Quick Guide. This guidance has been developed in partnership with Healthwatch England and it aims to support local health and social care systems to reduce the time people spend in hospital, by reducing delays in making arrangements for or decisions about ongoing care.

Carers

A Practical Guide to Healthy Caring – a new publication for carers. NHS England has co-produced this free guide in partnership with Carers UK, Carers Trust, Age UK, Public Health England and input from carers’ networks. While it is aimed at carers of any age, it is particularly relevant to carers aged around 65 and over and those new to caring. Find out more about the guide and how to order copies here

Pensions information and advice

A seminar entitled "Everyone’s Pension”,  jointly organised by Midlands TUC, British Pensioners Trade Union Action Association and East Midlands Pensioners Convention will take place on 18 May 2016, 11.00  – 15.00 at Peepul Enterprise, Orchardson Avenue, Leicester, LE4 6DP.

The seminar will focus upon both issues facing pensions today and also debate how to campaign for greater fairness and generational equality. The event is open to all, lunch will be provided and there will be free car parking. To reserve your place please contact Michelle Kesterton at: mkesterton@tuc.org.uk

Pension Wise

Pension Wise is a free and impartial government service that has been set up for people who having been paying into a pension pot or ‘money purchase’ scheme (ie one not based on final salary or career average). At Pension Wise you can find out what you can do with your pension pot, how to shop around and what to look out for with taxes and fees.  It also explains how to avoid pension scams.

To book an appointment to get free and impartial guidance over the phone or face to face go to https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/.

Nottingham Trent University courses

At Nottingham Trent University, two courses for older learners (primarily 55 and over) have now received business and academic approval. An introductory course entitled “Making New Moves and Building New Futures” and a Postgraduate course “Enriching Life with Social Science” will run from September 2016 and 2017 respectively. For further details please contact Chris Ring (Senior Lecturer in Social Work), Nottingham Trent University: chris.ring@ntu.ac.uk