Smethwick Older People's Conference

Communities Working Together

Tuesday 20th November 2007

Background

Agewell’s Smethwick Older People’s Forum, one of six similar forums in Sandwell, was set up to enable older people to identify, influence and act upon issues of concern to older people living in the area.  The Smethwick group has been meeting since November 2006 and in June 2007 an idea came from one of the members of the group on the main premise for a older people’ conference in Smethwick.
The idea was that members realised Smethwick’s unique cultural diversity and simply wanted to know more about people in their community.
Over a number of months, Agewell and the forum members worked to plan a conference which took place on 20th November 2007 at the West Bromwich Albion Football Ground.

Forum members identified a number of different organisations in the area to invite to the conference with the purpose of bringing “Communities working together”. These included: 

African Caribbean Communities, Agewell and Active Sandwell, Bangladeshi Islamic Centre, Hindu Cultural Resource Centre, International First Born Church of the Living God, Sandwell Community Health Network, Sandwell Irish Society, Sikh Community Guru Nanak Community Centre, Smethwick Pakistani Muslim Association and St. Gregory’s Catholic School.

On the day

Forum members also helped plan the format of the day.  Members felt strongly about the event being just for ‘the people”.  This was reflected in that only two dignitaries attended, which included The Worshipful The Mayor of Sandwell Councillor Gurcharan Singh Sidhu and Mr Richard Nugent, the Chair of Sandwell Primary Care Trust.

Agewell staff and forum members contacted a number of the leads in the organisations listed above.  This was to ask for their involvement and advice in regard to what to provide on the day as a reflection of their community.  It was decided that each of the most prominent communities in Smethwick would provide a short talk and piece of entertainment.  The event would be hosted by Mr John Homer who worked for Black Country Living Museum and had knowledge of the past of Smethwick.  On the day there would also be translation available as well as transport to and from the event.

Entertainment on the day came from the following performers:

• Irish Dancers from St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School
• African Caribbean Resource Centre Day Care Service Choir
• Dhol Blasters
• Hindu Religious Songs

There were also talk from representatives of each community, discussing aspects such as religion and when they arrived in Smethwick.

Overall on the day over 160 older people attend from the various communities and this was down to the numerous leads in each organisation.  We’d like to thank all who were involved in making this a community event and a special thank you must go to the Smethwick Town Committee for providing financial support to hire the venue and interpreters. 
Feedback was excellent on the day from attendees.  This was reflected in the numbers who attended and the interaction between different groups.