Post-Retirement Opportunities (PRO)

Happy, healthy, fulfilling retirement

Couple on moped laughing

The Post-Retirement Opportunities (PRO) was a pilot project funded by the Bristol and District Retirement Council (BDRC) and delivered by LinkAge Network in partnership with Business in the Community and The Anchor Society. The project ran for 12 months from April 2018 to April 2019, helping people aged 55+ who were approaching retirement, recently retired, or facing redundancy in later life, manage the shift into the next phase of their lives.

The events programme saw 175 people from across Bristol attend a FREE fair or workshop to learn more about the support, advice and opportunities available to them, hear from those with lived experience of retirement, explore and share ideas, and meet other people at a similar stage in life.

Over 35 organisations offering information, support, advice and opportunities across the areas of money, work, volunteering, learning, leisure, and health & wellbeing were represented at events, whilst guest speakers shared honest, insightful and inspiring accounts of their own retirement journeys. Small group workshops provide the opportunity for participants to explore topics such as retirement planning, goal-setting, mindfulness, staying fit and healthy, and working in later life.

Please get in touch if you are a business or organisation interested in hosting a retirement planning workshop for your employees.

Learning & Impact

Read our Reflecting on the Post-Retirement Opportunities Project report (PDF) which highlights some of the key learning and impact achieved by the project. The report will be available here soon.

Participant Case Study

“I had retired just three months before attending the PRO launch event in July 2018. Having assumed the event would focus just on volunteering, I was pleased to find it covered a range of other areas, including my four pillars of a happy retirement – staying sociable, being creative, keeping active, and giving something back! The guest speaker, a retired solicitor, was fantastic. I could really relate to much of what she was saying, and she encouraged me to think outside the box. I’ve since taken up Nordic Walking, something I’d never tried before, and which now keeps me both active and sociable! It’s important not to underestimate the psychological impact of retirement – the fear of losing your identity, purpose, and the social connections we have through work. Just being in a room with other people at a similar stage in life, knowing there are others going through the same thing, really helps you feel less alone.”

Claire

Thinking about retirement?

Our Planning for Retirement directory outlines some useful things to consider when thinking about retirement, and includes a list of organisations offering information, support, advice and opportunities.

Download the Planning for Retirement Directory (PDF).