John Baron MP helps support Abbeyfield Week 2011

AGEnda – A Generational Skills Swap 

John Baron MP this week lent his support to Abbeyfield Week 2011 by taking part in a generational skills swap in Parliament. John Baron was joined by the actor and Abbeyfield patron Geoffrey Palmer in Parliament to raise awareness of this innovative scheme, which brings together older and younger people to encourage them to swap invaluable skills. 

The events were spearheaded by Abbeyfield, a not-for-profit organisation which has over 700 houses and 80 care homes across the UK, as part of their annual Abbeyfield week. This year’s theme is AGEnda – a generational skills swap which will see events hosted at a number of their local residential homes to encourage and improve greater understanding between generations. It will also enable residents to have a fun day interacting with young people to swap skills which are currently unknown to each other. John has two Abbeyfield residential homes in his constituency.

The Parliamentary event was held ahead of Abbeyfield Week, which will take place between 10^th-19^th June.

John said:

“I am pleased to be able to support this innovative scheme to help raise awareness of the importance of skills swaps. Too often we overlook the need for different generations to get together and learn new skills such as IT, cooking, and reading. It also provides an excellent to encourage better understanding.”

Paul Allen, Chief Executive of Abbeyfield said:

“We are delighted that John Baron MP is supporting this year’s Abbeyfield Week – AGEnda: A generational skills swap. We would like to see more of these generational skills swaps in areas across the country to enable better understanding between different generations. Schemes such as this not only help alleviate loneliness amongst older people, but also teach younger generations skills that they might otherwise have missed.”

Notes to Editors

• Contact: Rebecca Warbrick on r.warbrick@abbeyfield.com or 01727 734168.
  • Abbeyfield is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making the lives of older people easier and more fulfilling. Abbeyfield helps people to live independently by providing a range of services, all of which are linked to the local community.
  • Abbeyfield currently has over 700 houses and 80 care homes across the UK, and are adding to these numbers by constantly developing new facilities.