Welcome to the website for the York Older People’s Assembly

For details of the Assembly and of events and information for older people, please click on the links on the menu above or the links below, alternatively contact us by post or email.

We are delighted to announce this year’s 50+ Festival!

2024 sees the 19^th Festival organised by YOPA – the York Older People’s Assembly. It will take place across the city for two weeks between Saturday 21 September and Sunday 6 October.

We want to welcome back everyone who’s made it so successful in previous years. We will share events and skills, enjoy meeting each other, provide tasters of new activities, “accentuate the positive” of being over 50, and contribute to the wellbeing of older people. We will produce a programme for the Festival which includes a wide range of events and activities to inform, excite, and introduce people to new ideas, interests, occupations, and pastimes.

We welcome events both large and small from both groups and individuals, which could be a traditional in-person activity, a virtual event online, or a hybrid event. All events go in the Festival Brochure, with printed copies available from early September. It’s also published online and stays online for a year. Last year’s programme can be found on the Festival page.

We value your participation and trust you will want to be part of this now very well-established festival. You can choose what fee, if any, to charge for your event(s) to cover your costs, though we encourage you to keep this low and maybe offer a free taster session for any regular activities.

The application form for groups’ and individuals’ events is on this link,

and in order to be proactive in our festival fundraising, we are asking every organiser to send us £6 for each event with their application to go towards the printing costs of brochures and posters. Cheques should be made payable to York Older People’s Assembly and sent to: YOPA, St Sampsons Centre, Church St, York, YO1 8BE, or payment can be made by BACS to ‘York Older Peoples Assembly’ Sort Code: 309950 Account: 77997668, putting the title of your event as the reference.

The deadline for all submissions is 31 July.

Information for business events, adverts, and sponsorships is also on this link.

The deadline for all submissions is 31 July

If you need more information, please contact the Festival Team at yorkfiftyplus@gmail.com, or ring the Festival Co-ordinator on 07920 162034

The Summer Newsletter is here!   

(Please click on the image below to link to the file.) 

                                                  

Chair’s Letter, July 2024

Dear Members and Friends,

Our next Open meeting is on Monday 15^th July 2024 at 2pm at Friends Meeting House. All are welcome to join us – both members and non-members.

Some of you may have seen the Carers Centre stall at our recent Information Fair and we are pleased to welcome Alison Wheatley to our meeting to tell us more of the support the Centre gives to those who are caring for others. There is a significant number of young carers who take on huge responsibility in helping to care for their parents, siblings and others.

St Leonards Hospice York offers a wide range of support and Annie Keogh with her colleague Clare Meadley will be coming to update us on the latest news and events affecting their services in York. They provide substantial services and despite government and local authority grants, they still need to raise £6million per year. Offers to help welcome!!

Both of these topics are about care services in York so if you want to find out more for either yourself or somebody else, come along and join in. Bring a friend and ask your questions or set out your views. Refreshments will be available.

Our next Open Meeting will be on Monday 16^th September when we plan to have several speakers and an open discussion about housing issues. Further details will be supplied in due course.

Elections

 Our recent Hustings event aimed at giving the main party candidates the chance to answer our questions was well received. We are grateful for the attendance and contributions of the representatives from the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties (The Reform party was invited but unable to attend).

Rachael Maskell (MP for York Central) and Luke Charters (MP for York Outer) were elected and we wish them well in their challenging task. Hopefully, we will see them again at some future event.

 

The Age Friendly York Citizens Group is open to all older people in York and details are available at AgeFriendlyYork@york.gov.uk. The Group meets on the first Thursday of every other month at West Offices from 10 – 11.30am with the next meeting on 1^st August – all are welcome.

Membership Year

Our membership year runs from April to March. Therefore, membership subscriptions for 2024 are now due and remain at only £5 per member (£10 for couples) – extra donations are very welcome.

Cost of postage is increasing and mailing paper copies of the Newsletter costs more than we receive in the basic membership so if you have a paper copy posted to you, please consider increasing your donation (or changing to an electronic version).

During the last year, we have switched banks to Lloyds Bank.  It is enormously helpful to us if people can pay by Standing Order (SO). For those who already do so then please change your standing order to our new bank account. Let us know if you need help in setting up a standing order. More details are set out on the reverse of this letter.

Subscription Information for 2024

The benefits of belonging to YOPA include –

• Regular Open meetings for you and your friends at which matters relating to older people in York are covered/talked about/discussed.
• 4 Newsletters a year with articles of interest to older people
• Information Fairs with many stands of local older people’s organisations
• Annual 50+ Festival with dozens of events across the City ranging from exercise and fitness to local history, music and gardening.
• During 2023 we held public meetings while we spent a lot of time working with York Council and others to maintain our visibility and continue to register the needs of older people.

Please consider paying by Standing Order to improve our efficiency. Our new bank account details are as follows: –             Account Name:  York Older Peoples Assembly

Bank:                       Lloyds Bank

Sort Code:               30-99-50

Account Number:    77997668

Please note it is ESSENTIAL to ask your Bank to quote your full name on the instructions from them to our Bank. If you have any queries, please phone the office, or call our Treasurer Shirley Reed on 01759-372993.

We welcome donations and several members add a donation to their subscription.

Gift Aid

We can also claim Gift Aid from the government for those who pay income or capital gains tax. If this applies to you, please let us know and we can send you a form which will allow us to claim an extra 25% on your subscription and donations.

We hope that you will choose to continue to be a Member of YOPA and look forward to seeing you at one of our future events.

Jim Cannon

Chair, York Older People’s Assembly, Email: yopachair@outlook.com                                                             

Age Friendly York

https://twitter.com/yopayork

Contact us

If you are an older person and interested in learning more about our work and perhaps becoming a member, browse this website, send us an email, or come to one of our Open Meetings.

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