Snooker hero supports Carmarthenshire’s older people’s charity Age Cymru Sir Gâr

Terry Griffiths OBE, snooker ace, West Wales legend and winner of the World Snooker Championship, the Snooker Masters and the UK Snooker Championship. will officially open the new offices and the new Advocacy project of Age Cymru Sir Gâr.
Age Cymru Sir Gâr, the older persons charity serving the over 50s of Carmarthenshire will be launching two of their latest developments on Friday, January 30:

• the Help to be heard advocacy project funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

and

• their new offices in Trostre 

The Advocacy project is to help older residents in Carmarthenshire to secure their rights, understand situations they are, in as well as ensure that their voices are heard and respected.
Staff and volunteers will be on hand to promote advocacy for older people and explain how the already popular service can benefit more people across the whole of Carmarthenshire.
Age Cymru Sir Gâr will be hosting a day of events from 10.30am to 3pm, including opportunities to learn new crafts, put on by its successful West Wales Befriending Links project, or have fun learning new digital skills, plus talks and information stands on all of the valuable projects including Welfare benefits advice and our ever popular Practical Services projects such as handyperson and gardening.
All are welcome, so do drop in to Age Cymru Sir Gâr’s new offices Unit 5-11, 100 Trostre Road, LEC workshops, Llanelli, SA15 2EA and help us celebrate our new project and our new office.
Light refreshments will be available throughout the day.
For more information please do not hesitate to call the office on 01554 784080.

ACSG’s Chief Officer Ann Dymock said:“This is a wonderful start to the year for us, letting people across Carmarthenshire know where we are when they need us, but also celebrating our new offices in our 20th year and our wonderful new advocacy project which has already supported more than 60 people to have their voice heard.”

Notes:
The office is open for drop in from 9am – 2pm to the public, Monday to Friday. However, the phone lines are open from 9am to 4pm after which time there is the national helpline – tel. 08000 223 444.
Age Cymru Sir Gâr website www.agecymru.org.uk/sirgar
Age Cymru website www.agecymru.org.uk

Advocacy
Independent advocacy provides people with the support they need to be heard, uphold their rights, and make informed choices about their lives. It can help to place people at the centre of crucial decisions.
· There were 25 full time and 46 part-time paid advocates delivering services funded specifically for older people in Wales in 2012. This is equivalent to one paid advocate for every 11,0001 older people in Wales
· There were 53 volunteer advocates delivering services specifically for older people in Wales in 2012. Overall, there was one advocate (paid and volunteer) for every 6,000 older people in Wales in 2012.
· Number of older people supported by advocates in the last 12 months: Over 4,000 by services specifically funded for older people
· An additional 1,500 people were supported by other services including IMCA and IMHA
· This has increased by approximately 1,000 since 2010, which should be expected given the increase in paid and volunteer advocates.
· The long term sustainability of services is an issue which must be addressed as the funding for the regional Big Lottery projects comes to an end in the next few years.

For further information about advocacy – see Advocacy counts 4 produced by Age Cymru - http://www.ageuk.org.uk/brandpartnerglobal/swanseabayvpp/documents/age%20cymru%20advocacy%20counts%204%20e(4).pdf