Every year on 21 August, World Senior Citizen’s Day offers everyone an occasion to honour the contributions of older people to our society and raise awareness of the challenges many face in later life, including health inequalities, structural barriers, and social exclusion. This year, the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) is marking the occasion by reaffirming our commitment to working with older people as equal partners in our research, aiming to shape more inclusive, age-friendly cities and communities.

Co-production is central to MUARG’s work. It means doing research not just about older people, but with older people: recognising their lived experiences, insights, and leadership. Whether through participatory neighbourhood planning, creative storytelling, or community-led health initiatives, they aim to embed meaningful co-production across all their projects.

The approach is guided by the recently developed MUARG Code of Practice for Co-Production, which outlines its values of social justice, inclusivity, and openness. MUARG collaborates with older people and community organisations to co-create knowledge and solutions that reflect the realities of ageing in urban environments.

A shining example amongst these efforts is the MUARG Older People’s Forum. This diverse group of older people living across Greater Manchester helps them to shape their research priorities, reflect on findings, and ensure work remains grounded and impactful.

Examples of co-production in action include training older people to conduct interviews and analyse data, co-producing a comic book to share refugees’ stories, training older people with filmmaking skills to produce documentaries, and co-designing an action plan that influenced local planning and policy. These projects show that co-production leads to more relevant, impactful, and sustainable research outcomes: building trust, empowering communities, and ensuring that older people’s voices lead the way.

Written by Jack Greeney, MUARG

Echoes of Displacement. / Hartland, Tess; Pollock, Lindsay (Illustrator).
2023.

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