In Zutphen, the district manager of the inner-city invited the Mobility Scouts project team to organise an ‘activity’ about Mobility Scouts/age-friendly Zutphen during a Meet-up of the national association of professionals working as district / regional managers (www.lpb.nl).
At the 28th of June, a ‘public living room’ was set up, at a square in the city center. Neighbours (older people) and people who passed by were invited to join, have coffee or a soda and meet with participants of the Meet-up. The group of professionals made a city tour by bike, visiting all kinds of ‘good practices’ of civil participation. They arrived a few minutes later, by bike, and were invited to join in.
Laura Christ and Inger Luijten informed the participants about Mobility Scouts, the ‘bottom-up age-friendly approach’ in Zutphen. Then, everyone was invited to look at the environment through ‘age-friendly glasses’ while having a drink, chatting with the neighbours, walk around, enjoying the live music (electric piano, cello, contrabas).
The message is: ‘look beyond the outside and the beauty of the place and think about issues that are important to the people who live around the square/in the inner-city. The district managers were challenged to come up with ideas how local authorities/ district managers could facilitate and support active engagement of older people concerning age-friendly development, design and accessibility of public spaces. The ideas were shared and written on the tablecloth. At least 30 people attended this activity that was much appreciated!
