1. Age-friendly Cultural City The Hague
Eline Jansen
Policy advisor Age-friendly City
Municipality of The Hague June 2018
I would like to welcome you all to the Hague. My name is Eline Jansen. I work for the municipality of the Hague as a policy adviser specialized in age friendly cities. I am honored to be the hosting city of the day and I will show you now the programme for today.

2. Programme Time Subject 10.00 AM Welcome + coffee & tea
10.05 AM Introduction The Hague
10.30 AM Grey Vibes
11.30 AM Presentation Bristol
11.50 AM Presentation Emmen
00.15 PM Lunch
01.15 PM Hekgolf
02.15 PM Presentation Nottingham
02.35 PM Presentation Alkmaar
02.55 PM Break
03.15 PM Presentation Stoke on Trent
03.35 PM KOO
04.30 PM Reflection
05.00 PM Departure to Leiden
We will start with an introduction of the Hague as Age friendly cultural city. After that we will witness one of the cultural initiatives, called Grey Vibes. Then it is time for two presentations, namely of the cities Bristol and Emmen. We will have lunch at twelve fifteen pm for about an hour. After lunch we will meet another initiative, called Hekgolf. We will continue with two presentations, one of Nottingham and one of Alkmaar. Followed by a short break. The last presentation will be of the city Stoke on Trent. And the last initiative will be KOO. We will end the day with time for reflection and at PM we will depart back to Leiden.

3. Introduction Why is it important to be an Age-friendly City?
Age-friendly Cultural City The Hague
Past, present, future
In my introduction of the Hague, I would like to start with telling you why it is important for the Hague to be an Age-friendly city. That way I can explain what the purpose of being an Age-friendly cultural city means to the Hague. And I would like you to know on what the Hague has done for cultural participation amongst the elderly in the past, is doing in the present and would like to investigate regarding the future.

4. Why is it important to be an Age-friendly City?
One in seven people in our country are seniors and in the future an ever increasing proportion of Dutch society will be made up of the elderly. At the end of the 20th century, The Hague was one of the most 'greyed' cities. You can see in this figure that the amount of elderly people in the Hague is continuously rising. This asks for a change in the policy of the Hague.

5. Why is it important to be an Age-friendly City?
Living at home as long as possible
At the same time the senior citizens need and want to live at home as long as possible. Due to the expenses on elderly care national and local government need to reduce on long term stays in care homes.
The Hague Municipality is doing everything it can, along with various partners, to ensure that seniors can continue to live independently with dignity for as long as possible. (Wmo/Law of social support).
These two trends are the reason why the Hague was the first city that became part of the Age-friendly cities network of the World Health Organization.

6. How to make an Age-friendly City?
Focus on vitality
Reach all and get all involved
Stimulating initiative
Creating opportunities
Our aim therefore is to make our city a place where older people are keen to remain active, where vitality is fostered, loneliness can be alleviated and where the built environment and its facilities are safe and accessible.
The Hague chooses to invest in the elderly community by focusing on vitality instead of on vulnerability. Vitality means that you can set your own goals that fit the stage of life you’re in and that it is possible to realize those goals. With focusing on vitality you address people on what they are capable of not on what they can’t do anymore. A person’s ability to participate in society does not end because they are elderly. There is a lot that people can do to maintain their vitality.
The Hague wants to achieve more vitality by getting the citizens and entrepreneurs of the city involved. The municipality stimulates meaningful initiatives around the city and tries to create opportunities in which these initiatives can flourish. For example by removing obstacles, giving financial support and organizing the annual month of vitality and the vitality awards.
The awards are a way of thanking the citizens of The Hague for their efforts in helping to create an age-friendly city. The Vitality Awards encourage the inhabitants of The Hague (both individuals and organisations) to play an active role in the life of the city.

7. Age-friendly Cultural City
Continuation and stimulation
Positive Health (Machteld Huber)
One way in which vitality in elderly can be established is by stimulating cultural participation. The Hague wants to stimulate and facilitate senior citizens who have always enjoyed cultural activities to continue to participate in these activities. At the same time the Hague wants to reach senior citizens who have never participated in cultural activities during their lives. It is important to stimulate and facilitate both groups of senior citizens because cultural participation has an effect on the positive health of the elderly. For example one of the initiatives ‘Granny Hiphop’ has a direct influence on the bodily functions of the participants as the participants learn how to reduce fall accidents in a fun way. In addition, participants make new social contacts and see that they are meaningful.

8. Age-friendly Cultural City
Past
Manifestations
Research
Share knowledge
Communication
Facilitate
Cultural participation is an important aspect of the policy regarding the Age-friendly city. KOO (represented here by Gertjan Bots) has participated in the Age Friendly Cultural Cities project in collaboration with Florence and the Municipality of The Hague for two years. To this end, we have organized various large urban events and neighborhood-oriented research groups. This has yielded a lot of knowledge which is presented and shared in the Cultural Canvas to all our partners in early 2017 in the Zuiderstrandtheater. That knowledge is about bringing together the needs of the elderly and what art initiatives offer. We use this knowledge for new projects. In addition, The Hague has taken the initiative with 5 other cities worldwide to work on age-friendly cities in the future. So in October 2017 we organized an international congress for two hundred fifty (inter)-national participants with a closing event at the Pier. The participants, together with seven hundred elderly people from The Hague, were able to see and practice the diversity of cultural and artistic activities in The Hague. This was also the presentation of the 'Arts & Culture guide’ developed by Cultuurschakel. Finally, there are specific advisors for elderly people at Cultuurschakel who can advise them on the appropriate cultural offer.

9. Age-friendly Cultural City
Present
Evaluate
Facilitate
This year is the end of our policy period. The perfect time for reflection and evaluation. At the moment we’re conducting an evaluation regarding cultural participation for senior citizens. With means of interviews we hope to regain insights into the value of cultural participation for the elderly. This will hopefully lead to input for our new policy. Naturally, we will continue to support initiatives during this period.

10. Age-friendly Cultural City
Future
Sustainable financing
Evidence based policy
Different ways to stimulate cultural participation
The reason we applied for this exchange is that we want to learn from other cities so we can improve our policy for the future. One of the topics we want to learn about is sustainable financing. How have other cities organized their financing and what kind of ideas are there about sustainable financing? Another topic is evidence based policy. We want show the value of cultural participation. Evidence of the value will find its way back into the policy regarding this theme. We want to know how other cities gather evidence for the value of cultural participation. The last topic on my list (for now) is that we are interested in different ways in which you can stimulate participation. We would like to hear about how you stimulate cultural participation in your city. Together, with sharing our knowledge, we can make a difference in the lives of numerous senior citizens.

11. THANK YOU!
Thank you all for listening! I am looking forward to learn more about your cities during your presentations and the remaining two days.
Topics to discuss
• Cross-sectoral cooperation (how do we stimulate different organisations to work together to tackle social issues, including cultural participation in the elderly).
• What effective "configurations" are there around (financiers, policy makers, (art) institutions, artists, the elderly themselves and possibly informal caregivers).
• Encouraging demand-oriented work (how do we get promoters to come up with a project based on the needs of the elderly, who are very diverse in our cities and involved the elderly in all variations of cultural background, artistic talent and income).
• How do you realize a meaningful day by art and culture for and with vulnerable elderly people with dementia or amnesia?