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Hey Neighbour,
What does age-friendly mean to you? What about ‘aging in place’?
The
fact is, we’re all aging, and yet we often assume that “age-friendly”
infrastructure and amenities are only for older adults. We’d like to
challenge this perception and re-define ‘aging in place’ and
age-friendly design, programming, and support as something that benefits
everyone across their life course.
In our most recent publication, ‘Silver Tsunami’ or Golden Opportunity,
Rob Wipond sets the scene for a series of stories over the next few
months that will follow the successes of innovative social programs in
multi-unit housing that connect neighbours, strengthen community
resilience and improve the conditions that make for healthy ‘aging in
place.’
Rob
read dozens of reports so that you don’t have to. His deep dive
provides a high-level overview of what the research shows is happening
across Canada, particularly in British Columbia, with respect to aging,
housing, social isolation, and climate impacts.
We’re also gearing up for an exciting 2-day ‘collective action’ symposium, Living Together 2025: Connecting housing, social health and resilience,
that will interweave the idea of age-friendly approaches to diverse,
yet overlapping sessions. With over 200 anticipated attendees, we’ll be
working hard behind the scenes to make sure this symposium sparks
lasting and meaningful conversation. We’ll be releasing more information
in the coming weeks.
There
are a lot of exciting things up ahead for the Hey Neighbour Collective,
and we invite you to join us on this journey! Take a look below for
some of our more recent outputs, and stay tuned for more updates as we
build momentum through the (very rapidly approaching) spring.
Warmly,
The Hey Neighbour Collective Team
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‘Silver tsunami’ or golden opportunity? |
As
Canada’s population ages, unprecedented and overlapping challenges,
such as declining housing affordability, increasing social isolation,
and growing vulnerability to climate events, are becoming more urgent.
So how can older adults, most of whom are aging into retirement,
navigate this era of polycrisis?
This
article spotlights some inspiring social programming initiatives led by
Hey Neighbour Collective’s partners and allies to help transform
relationships, systems and society in ways that ultimately enable
everyone to age in place.
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Building Social Connections, Age-Friendly Edition
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Last summer, we released our “Building Social Connections”
toolkit in collaboration with long-time HNC partner Happy Cities. Since
then, it has been shared all around the world. Just this month, it even
made its way into a heady United Nations Statistics Commission report by
the ‘Friends of the Chair group on social and demographic statistics.’
Garnering positive responses for its excellent content and fun,
easy-to-scan format, it’s a core resource for a national training series we’re currently convening with planners from 49 communities across Canada.
And
the Happy Cities team - led by Madeleine Hebert and Emma Avery - have
done it again. With support from HNC, they’ve created an Age-Friendly
addition to the main toolkit. This companion piece features extra
guidance and a specific set of design actions to support
intergenerational neighbourly connections and conditions for aging in
place.
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Diving Deeper: Advancing connection through the built environment |
Our
built environments– where we live, where we work, where we rest,
and where we do everything in between- play an immense role in how and
when we interact with others. This webinar, hosted by the Foundation for Social Connections, invites an exemplary panel of experts (including our very own director Michelle Hoar) to take a deeper dive on the critical role that our built environment plays on social connection.
“We want to make sure that we are densifying in equitable ways, and in ways that actually promote social connection, neighbourliness, age-friendliness, and social well being.” - Michelle Hoar
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Partner feature
We're a collective impact project composed of many partners. Learn more about them here and read on for some recent, exciting projects they've been working on!
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"Connect & Prepare should be in every building!" |
Do you know what to do in case of another heat dome? An earthquake? Flash floods?
Extreme weather events are becoming more common, but many of us still aren’t ready for them. Connect & Prepare is an innovative social program which brings neighbours together and teaches them about the
value of social connections in preparing for acute emergencies, but
also the daily and personal chronic stressors that we all face from time
to time. It teaches
emergency preparedness skills, but most importantly, supports neighbours
to build collaborative relationships and collective social
resilience. After all, in a crisis, our closest sources of support
are often just next door. It’s less about WHAT you have in your toolkit
than WHO you have in it.
A
group of neighbours at a BC Housing site developed a Floor Connectors
System as part of Connect & Prepare in collaboration with Building
Resilient Neighbourhoods, BC Housing, and Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.
Floor Connectors are groups of neighbours who take action and support
their communities to be better prepared before, during and after
emergencies. Check out BRN's new story exploring the impacts of this
initiative through the experiences of neighbours, staff and community
partners.
To
learn more about how BRN has supported Tenant Engagement and Resilience
at BC Housing, listen to the latest episode of "Let's Talk Housing!"
featuring BRN's Executive Director, Stacy Barter and BC Housing's
Manager of Tenant Engagement, Alex Johnston.
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What's been catching our attention |
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Connect with Hey Neighbour Collective |
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