Nicola Palmarini, has achieved his goal of Ageism Awareness Day being officially recognised.

Nicola Palmarini, a trustee at Laidlaw Schools Trust, has achieved his goal of Ageism Awareness Day being officially recognised.

As the current Director of UK's National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), Palmarini has brought a wealth of expertise to LST since joining as a trustee in February 2023, that aligns closely with our mission and vision of providing an inclusive and innovative education for all children in the region. 

This week, himself and his associates celebrated the milestone of Ageism Awareness Day bring officially recognised. He expresses his joy at this achievement here -

"Personally, I hate celebrating myself, but the occasion is too important to pretend otherwise. After 6 years since my talk, I am incredibly happy that the calendar (finally) includes Ageism Awareness Day. There is no ranking of the importance of discrimination, they are all terrible and merciless in their violence, but, as I said some time ago, this is the discrimination of this century, so invisible, so pervasive, and, for this reason, so devastating. I would have liked to have done so much more over the years to combat ageism, but, today, I feel so much less alone in 2017 thanks to the work of exceptional people in this field."

Nicola speaks of a Tedx talk he gave in 2017 that can be viewed here:

www.ted.com/talks/nicola_palmarini_ageism_la_discriminazione_del_xxi_secolo

It was a truly inspirational talk and we are so lucky to have Nicola supporting us at Laidlaw Schools Trust.

If you don't find yourself with enough time to watch the video, we would like to leave you with these quotes that really spoke to us:

"I am here to tell you that diversity is the most powerful innovation weapon we have, that there's no 'young vs. old' war, and there's an amazing change to join our forces and change the world together."

"Think about how many things we can, and we could, do together if we built a bridge, not a wall, between the two ends of the society. I am here to ask you to replace the word 'anti-aging' with 'pro-aging'. I am here to suggest you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself, that person you see in there will change a lot, I can guarantee you. But people don't judge you for your looks. People judge you for the idea that power gave to your look. That should be fought for, not wrinkles."