Stronger Together: A Co-production Toolkit from Ageing Better

Co-created with the community, for the community.

As part of National Co-production week we are delighted to launch Stronger Together – Ageing Better’s co-production toolkit – co-created by the 14 national Ageing Better programmes across England.

Co-production has been at the very heart of Ageing Better’s work. The voices of older people have been involved within every aspect of our programme – from the setting up, dissemination, design, & delivery, through to the evaluation of services, projects & activities for people aged 50 and over.

Part of our legacy has been the development of an interactive Toolkit, a one stop, user friendly space where we can share our collective experiences across the last 6 years. Our extensive learning is brought to you through a beautifully illustrated PDF document which sets the scene, linking to hundreds of stories, tools and resources available at your fingertips.

The toolkit is organised into 12 distinct co-production themes:

• Creating a co-production culture
• Community development through micro-funding
• Tackling ageism through co-production & age friendly communities
• Co-production within coastal & rural communities
• Tackling loneliness through co-commissioning
• Empowering communities through partnership working
• Co-researching within the community
• Growing sustainable groups
• Diversity& inclusion
• Creativity in co-production
• Asset based community development
• Co-production in a crisis

If you are looking to use a co-production approach to involve people in the design of services, projects or activities that impact them and their communities, then this Toolkit is for you. Whether you’re just starting out with co-production, or looking to refine your methods to meet a specific challenge, you will find plenty of useful insights and inspiring stories in our Toolkit.

We wanted to bring to life the work of the Ageing Better programme in a way that can be accessed by anyone wanting to work with people in their communities, whether at a strategic, operational or grassroots level.

Here is our “about this toolkit” document to help you get to grips with how the Toolkit works, what you can expect to find within and the best way to find what you need in a way that works for you.

If you have any questions, would like to be connected with any of the contributors, or would like to find out how to host Stronger Together on your website, contact: customercollaboration@syha.co.uk.

We hope you enjoy this resource!