What is an Age-Friendly Community?
An age-friendly community is a community where the policies, services and physical spaces are universally designed to enable people of all ages to actively age in a secure and accessible environment from both a physical and social perspective. In an age-friendly community:
- Seniors are supported to age actively, enjoy good health, and remain independent and involved in their communities.
- People of all ages and abilities benefit from safer, barrier-free buildings and streets, better access to local businesses and facilities, and more green spaces.
- Businesses benefit from the increased support and spending power of older customers, and are better able to support older workers.
- The community benefits from the increased participation of older adults in community life.
Why should my community become Age-Friendly?
Newfoundland and Labrador, like many other parts of Canada and the world, has a rapidly aging population. By 2040, it is estimated that approximately 44 per cent of the province’s population will be aged 55 or older.
Communities are directly affected by the aging of the population and other changing demographics. Communities can benefit by designing policies, providing services and infrastructure, and taking action in areas such as housing, health, recreation, social participation, and transportation.
Rural and remote communities may face unique social and environmental challenges, which are different from urban populations. These challenges can have an impact on health and healthy aging.
What makes a community Age-Friendly?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified eight key domains of community life required to become truly age-friendly. These include:
- Outdoor Spaces and Buildings
- Transportation
- Housing
- Respect and Social Inclusion
- Social Participation
- Communication and Information
- Civic Participation and Employment Opportunities
- Community Support and Health Services
How can my community become Age-Friendly?
Based on the experience of Canadian communities that have been making positive changes for a number of years, the Public Health Agency of Canada, in collaboration with key partners, has developed five critical milestones on the way to becoming age-friendly. This approach recognizes that communities have different needs and capacities in relation to the eight domains of an age-friendly community.
The following age-friendly community milestones were numbered only for organizational purposes and easy reference, and are not meant to suggest order of achievement.
The Age-Friendly Community milestones are:
- Establishing an advisory committee that includes the active engagement of older adults;
- Securing a local municipal council resolution to actively support, promote and work toward becoming age-friendly;
- Establishing a robust and concrete plan of action that responds to the needs identified by older adults in the community;
- Demonstrating commitment to action by publicly posting the action plan;
- Committing to measuring activities, reviewing action plan outcomes and reporting on them publicly.
What resources are available to help my community become more Age-Friendly?
Age-Friendly Communities in Canada: Community Implementation Guide
The Age-Friendly Communities in Canada: Community Implementation Guide (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/health-canada/migration/healthy-canadians/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/age-friendly-communities-guide-2012-collectivites-amies-aines/alt/pub-eng.pdf) can be used by anyone who wants to put their ideas and vision for a more age-friendly community into action. These actions can focus on one or many different sectors in the community—health and social services, parks and recreation, policing services and businesses—to incorporate age-friendly approaches into design, policy and services. The Guide shows you how to:
- assess the age-friendliness of your community
- get people involved
- set goals
- create a plan
- carry out the plan
- assess whether you have accomplished the goals in your plan
- share the results with others
Age-Friendly Communities in Canada: Toolbox
The Age-Friendly Communities in Canada: Toolbox (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/age-friendly-communities-canada-community-implementation-guide-toolbox.html) contains many practical tools and resources to help make your community more age-friendly. These tools include great examples from across Canada of work plans, time lines, checklists, potential funders and guidelines to help you implement and assess your progress in developing your age-friendly community.
This Toolbox is intended for use by seniors, business people, city/town planners, community groups, municipal officials, recreation coordinators and other concerned citizens who are interested in developing or updating strategies for age-friendly communities. It is designed to guide the development and assessment of projects toward the age-friendly goal. Best communication practices are also provided to help deliver age-friendly messages consistently and effectively.
Age-Friendly Communities Evaluation Guide: Using Indicators to Measure Progress
The Age-Friendly Communities Evaluation Guide (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/migration/phac-aspc/seniors-aines/alt-formats/pdf/indicators-indicateurs-v2-eng.pdf) provides communities with practical information on how to use indicators to measure progress and evaluate their age-friendly initiatives.
The Guide focuses on one important aspect of developing and maintaining an age-friendly community: the use of indicators in planning, implementing and evaluating age-friendly community initiatives. The Guide not only provides information on how and why the use of indicators can strengthen community age-friendly initiatives, it also offers a menu of specific, measurable indicators that are applicable to the eight domains of community life that are being addressed in age-friendly programming.
MAKING YOUR COMMUNITY MORE AGE-FRIENDLY WEBINAR
In October 2021, the Departments of Children, Seniors and Social Development and Municipal and Provincial Affairs co-hosted “Making Your Community More Age-Friendly”. To view the webinar recording and presentations visit: https://www.gov.nl.ca/cssd/department/branches/seniors/making-your-community-more-age-friendly-webinar/
What funding opportunities are available to support my community to become Age-Friendly?
Age-Friendly Newfoundland and Labrador Communities Program
The Age-Friendly Newfoundland and Labrador Communities Program assists communities in NL to support changing demographics by developing and implementing policies and plans, undertaking projects that enable us to age in place, and facilitating the creation of age-friendly communities.
Other potential funding sources to help communities take action to become more age-friendly:
Active NL
The Active NL Fund is designed to support active healthy living. Funding is available for initiatives, infrastructure, and equipment that increases participation in physical activity, sport, active recreation, and supports healthy eating for individuals of all ages.
New Horizons for Seniors Program
The New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) is a federal grants and contributions program. It provides funding for projects that make a difference in the lives of seniors and in their communities.
Additional Age-Friendly Communities Resources
A great way to start gathering data would be to visit the Newfoundland and Labrador Community Accounts https://nl.communityaccounts.ca. This is a free resource that provides a single comprehensive source of community and regional data, which includes readymade profiles of the general population and seniors. You can also learn more about rural communities and regions in Canada by visiting the Rural Canada Statistics site at Rural Canada statistics (statcan.gc.ca).
In addition, there are several organizations provincially that can provide your community and/or region with data, information, resources and tools to help you: