The Centre for Ageing Better has been shortlisted for this year’s Charity Awards for its pioneering free ‘Age-positive Image Library’ containing hundreds of images of older people depicted in a realistic and diverse way.

Ageing Better launched the Age-positive Image Library in January 2021 in a bid to challenge negative and stereotypical views of later life, and to improve the representation of ageing and old age in stock image collections.

The first free image library of its kind, starting with just over 700 photos, the collection now features more than 1,500 positive and realistic images of people aged 50 and over. Since its creation, images from the library have been viewed over 10 million times and downloaded more than 70,000 times.

To further promote its age-positive images, last year Ageing Better partnered with Pexels, which means the images are also promoted on one of the largest free stock image libraries in the world.

Ageing Better continues to commission photographs for the library that represent different experiences of ageing, including collections that focus on LGBT+ people over 50, and older and disabled people getting active. There are also photos on the theme of active travel, digital inclusion and being environmentally friendly.

The majority of images in the library use real people with lived experience and are designed to reflect diversity in later life that is inclusive of gender, race and sexuality as well as age.

To remove barriers around access and usage, the image library is free to use with images published under the Creative Commons licence.

Images from the library have been used by a host of organisations including the World Health Organisation, Sport England, the Department of Health and Social care as well as universities and academics, graphic designers and journalists.

Emma Twyning, Director of Communications and Policy at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be shortlisted for the Charity Awards. We are immensely proud of the impact our Image Library has had so far and continues to have in tackling negative stereotypes around ageing.

“Ageism is the most prevalent form of discrimination in the UK and the frequent stereotyping of older people and their lives in TV, journalism, advertising and marketing only acts to compound ageist attitudes.

“Older people are frequently characterised as one homogenous group in society, when the reality is that people are incredibly diverse in terms of their lifestyles and interests, backgrounds and circumstances as they get older.

“Our Age-Positive Image library aims to combat this mischaracterisation, helping to portray ageing in a more accurate and representative way. We have more exciting developments for expanding our own image library in the months ahead and we hope that many more organisations and media publications will benefit from the free resource we have created.”

The Centre for Ageing Better has been named on the shortlist for the Arts, Culture and Heritage category in the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector.

All 30 shortlisted charities have been judged by an independent panel of sector leaders as having demonstrated best practice in leadership and management, from which other organisations can learn.

The 10 category winners, plus the recipients of the Overall Award for Excellence and the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, will be announced on Thursday 16 June.

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