Windsor, Ontario is not only Canada’s southernmost city, it is a city that shares an international border with Detroit, Michigan, USA. Our southern proximity boasts some of Canada’s best weather, excellent real estate values, diverse agriculture as part of Ontario’s wine region and a well-developed festival and cultural schedule that borrows from our American neighbours when including world-class cultural and sporting events. These features make Windsor enticing to retirees and a perfect candidate for age-friendly planning.

The Age-friendly Windsor Network is comprised of an Executive Committee of approximately 14 committed stakeholders who each chair one of 9 working groups (one for each domain and one public input group) who have committed to bringing to life recommendations contained within the Age-friendly Windsor Action Plan. Total participation on the Network stands at about 60 stakeholders and specially selected members of the public who represent 10,000 citizens in various public membership groups. In addition, representatives from the Network participate in the Southern Ontario Age-friendly Network, a collaboration of several GNAFCC members as an effort to keep in touch and knowledge-share.

The City of Windsor has designated an Age-friendly lead in the Social Planning Department to work in cooperation with the Executive Committee Chair. The municipal lead has regular contact with and cooperation from municipal staffers in each and every municipal department. The lead’s role is to monitor the municipality’s progress towards indicators identified in the Action Plan.

The formalized structure noted above is a recently (Winter 2015) accomplished milestone that will continue, going forward. In addition, an electronic survey tool has been created that will allow organizations to share their success with the Network. All efforts are currently directed towards fulfillment of the plan. We are hoping to have excellent progress to report in 2017!