Olwyn is the chair of The Golden Oldies, an older people’s wellbeing group in Tonge Fold. Before Olwyn came along the group was about to fold due to ill health and lack of confidence in existing members. Since she joined she has turned the group around, working tirelessly to ensure needs of residents in the local area are met.
She chairs the Golden Oldies Community Group, and since she joined, has given the group a clear sense of direction, namely supporting the constitution of the group in order to source funding and improve and secure the future of the centre.
Olwyn has supported the group to deliver a range of activities for elderly residents from the building in order to prevent loneliness and social isolation as well as to improve wellbeing. The group focus wholeheartedly on the needs of the older generation living in the area and is a life line for those who attend. Sessions are varied and range from coffee mornings to games sessions 3 times a week. There’s around 20 members each week with ages ranging from 65-102!!!!!
Olwyn used to work for the NHS and as such puts health highly on the agenda for the group. She has implemented talks by various service providers in the borough and has been instrumental in ensuring more people attend to learn something new. Olwyn has applied for funding to provide a hot meal in order to encourage more people to come to the talks. This has really increased the numbers and has made members more aware of local support services available to them. Talks have included; PCSOs, Keep Warm for Less training, Stress Management (Bolton College), Positive Retirement, Fire Service-Staying Safe in the Home, Energy Efficiency, Bolton CCG, Dementia Awareness, Careline, Age UK, Osteoporosis, Stroke Association, Healthy Food, Fall Prevention, Live at Ease, Carers association and walking charity Living Streets- to name a few.
Olwyn is passionate about helping people and ensuring things are inclusive. She does ongoing consultation with group members, we ask what they would like to do or visit or a day trip. This gives each member the chance to speak rather than thought for them. She informs the group of local activities in the area and gives out tickets to the Octagon theatre to neighbours who are isolated.
She is keen to broaden the use of the Centre to ensure it remains open to the community and as such is currently working with other partner agencies and schools to do some intergenerational work in the area. She hopes that through sharing stories and experiences, relationships between old and young in Tonge Fold will improve.
Working closely with Bolton at Home, Olwyn leads on all communications. She regularly calls to update on positive news stories in the group, as well as to report repairs for the centre. As a result it has meant that the running of the centre is smooth and problems can be dealt with quickly. In addition, Olwyn has recently become an ambassador for Ambition for Ageing, sitting on the funding panel to support groups and projects which promote active ageing in the community.
She has an ever positive attitude and never complains about challenges faced. She is an ongoing support for members of the group and her can do attitude encourages others to stay positive even during hard times.