Topic Group: Age Friendly Living
The Topic Group Age Friendly Living is enthusiastically lead by Sarah Mitton, Age Friendly Communities Manager at Clarion Housing Association (London), and Tommaso Scalzi, Commercial Manager at OVER Spa (Milano). Two professionals in the field of housing and services for older people and the ageing society.
The number of 65 plus people in Europe in 2022 was 21%, a number rising in almost all European countries. Still, in many countries the housing sector is poorly adapted to this demographic change. The trend to reduce collective housing and care options for older people (‘elderly homes’) and increased focus on independent living is seen in many countries.
The Topic Group Age Friendly Living, created in 2024, aims to fill a gap and to build intelligence in the field of housing, care and services for an ageing population.
The topic group will exchange expertise and experiences among the EFL member community and together work on innovative and affordable solutions for this target group.
The topic group organises regular meetings, both via video calls, as well as on-site meetings. For June 2024 it is planned to have a first meeting in Rome and visit the properties of OVER Spa.
You can join this group by writing an e-mail to : info@ef-l.eu.
BUTTON to the Topic Group Folder in Google Drive : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vq3W5bH1DbzeJlDrU1bbV8Y31Tf_b9ZX?usp=sharing
Topic Group Leaders: Sarah Mitton (Clarion Housing Group, London) and Tommaso Scalzi (EFL Associate, Milan)
Sarah has worked as Age Friendly Communities Manager for Clarion Futures, the charitable subsidiary of Clarion Housing Group, since 2017. Her role is focused on creating thriving communities where Clarion’s 360,000 residents can age well and 4 years ago she coordinated the creation of the organisation’s Age Friendly Strategy.
Over the last 6 years Sarah has launched a number of programmes to connect communities across generations, including a £4m programme to give young people the tools and resource to undertake youth and Intergenerational social action in their neighbourhoods; a Good Ideas Fund to support staff intraprepreneurship around themes such as healthy ageing and care; and two national ambassador groups giving younger and older residents a voice in the shaping of strategy, programmes and services.
Prior to working for Clarion Sarah ran her own storytelling for leadership business and worked for UnLtd, supporting social entrepreneurs to develop their enterprises.
Sarah Mitton
Clarion Housing Group
During my early years in business I developed intensive management skills thanks to a vast experience of client’s satisfaction and procurement operations in different industries such as hospitality, telecommunication and pharmaceuticals around the world focusing, mainly, on US and EMEA markets.
Coming from the town of Genova, Italy – in the beautiful coast of Liguria – my passions have always been related to music, travelling, business and people.
In 2021, I developed my own business named Resilia Service: an innovative start-up that will deliver to the Italian market the very first mobile App entirely dedicated to personal services such as healthcare support and what is related to the latter.
This experience brought me to coordinate the “Healthy City” Agenda within the Genova Smart City based on the goal to be achieved as the 2030 ONU’s Agenda stated.
Since 2023 I become responsible for Public Relations and Sales area about silver economy under the aspects of development, Institutional and Private Affairs regarding new formulas of tech and housing projects.
During the same year I started to collaborate with the European Federation for Living turning to be a coordinator at the Age Friendly Living topic group.
Last but not least I am in charge of the Institutional Relations, both National and International, regarding Diversity & Inclusion together with EDGE – Leaders for change.
Tommaso Scalzi
EFL Associate