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Summary

To enhance the understanding of age-friendliness among residents of all ages in North District, the Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association (HKYWCA) Ellen Li District Elderly Community Centre, in collaboration with the District Council and several elderly centres in the district, implemented the project “Age-Friendliness in North District”, comprising several programmes and activities that helped promote age-friendliness in the district.

In the beginning, 140 elderly volunteers were recruited and trained to be “Age-friendly Ambassadors”. Together with secondary and primary students, the ambassadors conducted on-site inspections of the social and physical facilities in the district to identify areas for improvement. The ambassadors also visited 238 elderly people living alone to conduct home safety assessment and to raise their awareness of home safety.

A series of activities were held throughout the project period. Four subject talks were conducted on the topics “Age-Friendliness”, ”Outdoor Spaces & Buildings”, “Housing” and “Social Participation” respectively with a total of 821 participants. These talks aimed to help the elderly understand the concept of age-friendliness and know more about what support services were available for them. In addition, to encourage the elderly to access health-related information through the Internet, a course on the use of smartphones and tablets was conducted with 189 participants. Also, to promote healthy lifestyles, a course on floor curling, a team sport suitable for all ages with different levels of abilities, was conducted with 100 participants.

In the final stage, an educational carnival cum community forum was held to enhance public awareness and to encourage public participation in building an age-friendly community.

Key facts

Main target group: Both younger and older people (i.e. intergenerational)

Other target group(s): Vulnerable older people living alone

Sector(s): Other

Other sector(s): Social service, public education

Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Ageism
  • Accessibility
  • Ageing in place
  • Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
  • Intergenerational activities
  • Inclusion
  • Participation
  • Technologies

Contact details

Name: Wang-to Wong

Email address: ndcadm@ndc.had.gov.hk

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Older People’s Association

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities

How collaboration worked: Funded by the North District Council, the project was organised by HKYWCA in collaboration with five other elderly centres in the district. Meetings were held between HKYWCA and the elderly centres to discuss and plan for the division of labour among various centres. As the elderly centres were located across the district, the project was able to cover elderly residents living in different parts of the district.

Older people’s involvement: Older people helped to implement the age-friendly practice

Details on older people’s involvement: Elderly volunteers were recruited and trained to be “Age-friendly Ambassadors”, who had the opportunities to conduct on-site inspections of community facilities in the district and propose suggestions for improvement. They were also responsible for conducting home safety assessment and promoting home safety measures for elderly people living alone.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: Yes

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Feedback:
The project has brought about improvements in public facilities and services available in the district. The subject talks have effectively delivered the message of age-friendliness to elderly residents. Furthermore, activities that involved the participation of the youths, such as inspections of community facilities and home visits, have enhanced intergenerational interactions and integration.

Looking back

Reflections:
We realised that the youths in the district also played an important role in the promotion of age-friendliness. Inviting the youths to participate in the project not only helped to raise their awareness and sensitivity in age-friendliness, but also effectively facilitated social inclusion and intergenerational interactions in the community. Furthermore, in addition to elderly centres, there were also many different stakeholders in the community, for example, business owners and estate management committees. As such, it would be important to invite different parties to pull together in order to facilitate the pooling of resources and the coordination in building an age-friendly community.

Challenges:
While the project was designed to encourage participation of elderly residents in the district, it was not easy to reach out to all of them, especially the hidden elderly. Because of health decline or death of their friends and relatives, many of them became increasingly isolated from the community. In light of the above, elderly volunteers were invited to visit other elderly people who were living alone and physical frail. This served as a way to reconnect the elderly people living alone to the community and to encourage them to participate more in community affairs.