Day in the life of a Age Friendly Salford development worker

My role forms part of the Age Friendly Salford programme, which supports older people across the city to stay connected, active and involved in their local communities. 

My day begins with a long drive with plenty of time to listen to music especially with the roadworks going on. I arrive at the office at 8:50am, enough time to get my laptop set-up and have catch-up with colleagues. The first thing I do is check for any new referrals to our Check and Chat service. I have 1 new referral today from Age UK Salford and Trafford. I check my diary to see when I am next available to call the referral and schedule them in for Friday morning.  

At 10:30am, I drive to Victoria park to deliver a Walk and Talk session, It’s raining so I bring my umbrella with me. These walks are relaxed, sociable and a great way for people to get outdoors and connect with others whilst embracing our 5 ways to wellbeing. 8 participants show up, 1 of the participants said they wanted some information around healthy eating so I signed them up to our Nutrition and hydration workshop that’s going on next week. After the walk I drive back to the office for my lunch, only a few of the AFS team are still having their lunch when I arrive so I have half my break in my car and watch a few videos on my phone.  

In the afternoon, I ring venues across Eccles and Swinton to schedule next month’s activities as well as ring external companies to come along to facilitate one of our sessions. This takes up most of my afternoon. The last thing I do before I finish is create a flyer with all the activities for next month and send it to be approved.  

I sign off for the day, put my laptop and equipment away, then prepare for the drive back home by turning on my music and drive into Manchester to pick up my partner from work. Today we are going to the gym together, as we go straight after work, to look after my body and mind. After this we have options on what we can do, we can either go out for a meal with friends or have a games night with them instead, we decide we will have games nights as its just what I need to relax after a long day.