Innovation: Learning for the Fourth Age

United Kingdom

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure Living (lifelong learning)

• Participation in society (inter-generational activity, voluntary activity)

Learning for the Fourth Age (L4A) is a social enterprise based in Leicestershire in the East Midlands that has been providing learning opportunities for older people in long-term institutional care since 2008. It has received funding from the Big Lottery Fund, the Daily Mail newspaper, Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council to support its work.

The University of the Third Age has become a global movement for older people in the community but as the number of ‘older old’ people increases there is going to be a growing number of people in long-term residential care who lack opportunities to engage in lifelong learning. L4A has mobilised more than 100 volunteers, often under the age of 25, to provide one-to-one support to older people in residential care seeking to learn new skills and enjoy new activities.

L4A provides learning opportunities in areas such as poetry, creative writing, music, reading groups, family history, gardening, psychology, digital storytelling and computing. This work has won a United for All Age Award for inter-generational activity and a Cybersmart Award for online safety for older people learning new computer skills.

There are a range of benefits from continuing to learn throughout the life course including improved confidence, self-confidence and a sense of well-being. There are benefits to physical and mental health including lower levels of depression and faster recovery rates as well as a greater ability to manage pain and illness. One-on-one learning reduces isolation and improves motivation to participate in daily activities of life by creating a greater sense of purpose.

A highlight of L4A’s work has been the Silver Dreams Project for Empowerment and Creativity in Care Settings (SPECS) funded by the Big Lottery Fund that enabled the expansion of activities. L4A has recently expanded to Sheffield and Leeds with collaboration with the University of Sheffield’s English Department on a project, Storying Sheffield, that involved students visits residential care homes to give voice to the life stories of residents. This project included working with older people with dementia who were able to reminisce about their life stories and experiences and provided beneficial social engagement across the generations.

In terms of active ageing domains, Learning for the Fourth Age clearly impacts on lifelong learning and provides opportunities for voluntary and inter-generational activity through one-on-one sessions in a long-term care setting. The ambition for active ageing applies to people of all ages and this includes people with dementia in long-term residential care who must not be written off as having little to offer when they have rights and responsibilities to participate in social and learning activities.

Learning for the Fourth Age website