By David Gledhill, Marketing & Communications Lead

Life is changing for people – young and old alike – across the Bay.

Ageing Well Torbay is a National Lottery Community Funded project that is now well into the fifth of its six-year life span and lives of over 50-year-olds are being changed daily.

At the other end of the age spectrum is a new project which has its launch event next month and is looking after the interests of children, young people and families.

Both have one simple aim that unites them – to make Torbay the best possible place to live in. From a young point of view the best place to be brought up in and from the older point of view the best place to grow old in.

If both succeed and there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t, then Torbay – Brixham, Paignton and Torquay will be the best places to live for everyone. Full stop.

Imagine This…, is also funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and is asking the people who know best what they think should be done to improve the lot of young people in the Bay – the young people themselves.

An open invitation has gone out to children, young people and families to come along and share their ideas and concepts at a *Festival of Imagination at Parkfield in Colin Road, Paignton

It promises to be an excellent and exciting start to a two-year project that that has brought together 26 organisations from across the Bay to ask the questions that mean the most to young people

Ageing Well Torbay has been doing the same with the over 50’s and has now reached the point where the questions have been asked and it is the over 50’s themselves that are working to deliver the answers.

Much has been made of the fact that older people can become isolated and lonely for lots of reasons, not least bereavement, retirement and ill health, but Ageing Well has been working to combat the causes wherever possible,

Ageing Well will also be holding the **Ageing Well Festival, its fifth celebration of ageing, at the Riviera Centre in Torquay on Saturday, October 19^th

But what was not recognised until relatively recently is the fact that loneliness and isolation is also prevalent among young people, particularly in areas of poverty and deprivation.

Torbay has pockets of both, and it also has well documented problems with children’s services delivered by Torbay Council, which have been in special measures of one sort or another for more than a decade.

We know that nearly 50% of the population in Torbay – around 70,000 – are over the age of 50 and Ageing Well Torbay has been working hard to ensure that they have a louder voice at all levels of Government.

But what of the 25,000 children and young people who live in the Bay – more than one in five of which are living in poverty and the number living in care is twice the national average as are the numbers of children requiring child protection plans.

Where is their voice? Who is talking to them and more to the point who is listening? With good reason many young people and children would say no-one and that is where Imagine This… comes in.

Imagine This… aims to provide a platform (or numerous platforms) that will allow those conversations to take place and for the voices to be heard before deciding with young’s people’s help how to do something about the issues that will be raised.

Torbay Community Development Trust is proud to be leading on both these projects and it is hoped that as both progress then the lot of the majority of the population – young and old alike will improve and the Bay really will become a great place to not just to be born in or to grow old in, but to live in.

*The Torbay Imagination Festival is free and is being held at Parkfield in Colin Road in Paignton between 2pm and 8pm on Saturday, September 21^st

**The Ageing Well Festival is also free and is being held at the Riviera Centre in Chestnut Avenue in Torquay on Saturday, October 19^th from 10 am to 5pm

For more details about either contact us 01803 212638 or email us: info@torbaycdt.org.uk