Age-Friendly Outdoor Trails

Status: Ongoing

Evaluated

Hamilton Canada

Print this page City population: 569,35525.7%% over 60Practice started in 2013

Summary

“Let’s Take a Walk” is promoting the health benefits of walking and increasing opportunities for older adults to participate in outdoor recreational walking along trail systems in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Eighteen outdoor trails spanning the greater City of Hamilton were selected for inclusion in this project. An Age-friendly trails assessment process adopted two existing audit tools for sixty-eight volunteers (older adults teamed with McMaster University students) to conduct assessments of the “age-friendliness” of Hamilton’s outdoor recreational trails. Trail audits looked at 4 content areas: design features e.g., surface, slope; amenities e.g., telephones, restrooms; maintenance & esthetics e.g., litter, dogs; traffic intersections e.g., crossing signals. Volunteers also looked for: points of interest, accessibility features, costs and other important information associated with utilizing these trails. Data from these audits was compiled by graduate students from McMaster University’s Occupational Therapy Program, ranking the ease of walkability as well as special features that exist along the trails.We put this information in a Trail Guide! “Let’s Take a Walk: An Age-Friendly Guide to 18 of Hamilton’s Outdoor Recreational Trails” contains unique information about featured trails including, ease of use, walkability, and key features of each trail. This guide contains original maps, pictures, and information about how to access trails.400 Trail Guides were printed and distributed to older adults across Greater Hamilton, many of whom participated in one of fifteen guided walks along included trails. In addition, an electronic copy of this trail guide is available free of charge at www.coahamilton.ca. This can be utilized as a personal tool and to engage others in walking along some of Hamilton’s beautiful and accessible age-friendly trails.“Let’s Take a Walk” is a Partnership of the Hamilton Council on Aging, McMaster University, City of Hamilton, Hamilton Conservation Authority & Iroquoia Bruce Trail Club, funded by the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund.

Website: http://coahamilton.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ALG49659-HCA-Walk-Book-web.pdf

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): All citizens in Hamilton (ex. information in trail guide is useful for all users of trail systems. Accessibility information is useful to other age demographics (ex. mother with a stroller.)

Sector(s): Urban development

Desired outcome for older people:
Be mobile

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Accessibility
Intergenerational activities

Contact details

Name: Denton, Dr. Margaret

Email address: admin@coahamilton.ca

Preferred language(s): English

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Older adults were involved in all aspects of Let’s Take a Walk, through involvement on the planning committee, volunteering to conduct trail audits, and participation in the Let’s Take a Walk workshops.

Moving forward

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

Please share with us what you found in detail:
(Results from Participant Evaluation Survey)*100% of participants who answered the survey reported increased knowledge in the post workshop evaluation questionnaire. *96% of participants who answered the survey reported that they felt more comfortable exploring Hamilton’s Outdoor Trails following their attendance at the workshop*100% of participants who answered the survey reported that they might or would use the information they learned at Let’s Take a Walk workshops to explore Hamilton’s outdoor trails more in the future.*100% of participants who answered the survey reported that they might or would share the information they learned at the Let’s Take a Walk workshops with their family/friends/others.

Feedback:
Let`s Take a Walk is a terrific idea. Good way to inform and engage seniors!

Expansion plans:
*Lets Take a Walk engaged 68 of diverse volunteers in the program, many of whom continued to be ambassadors for Age-Friendly Trails*“Let’s Take a Walk” promoted the health benefits of walking to over 250 older adults who attended workshops, and countless more who continue to access the trail guide. * Collaboration- This HCoA program was successful due to the skills and outstanding contributions made by a multidisciplinary team of experts, including representatives from McMaster University, Occupational Therapy Program, The City of Hamilton, Public Health Services, Seniors Recreation, Parks and Cemeteries, The Hamilton Conservation Authority, Iroquoia Bruce Trail Association, and an inter-generational team of volunteers.* Production and availability of Trail Guide: Let’s Take a Walk: An Age-Friendly Trail Guide of 18 of Hamilton’s Recreational Trails, describing the ease of access and key features of 18 of Hamilton’s walking trails, incorporating detailed maps and walking routes, original pictures, and tips to utilize Hamilton’s Recreational Trail Systems.

Looking back

Challenges:
A challenge encountered in this program was created in our effort to produce a trail guide with consistent maps to provide accurate information to users.As trails included in the guide represented different trails associations and there were not existing trails maps with the data accessed in trail audits, we paid for new maps to be created, for the purposes of creating a consistent look, in an age-friendly format, to include key information found in the trail audits in the Trail Guide.While the result of this was extremely positive (with tremendous help and supplying of data from partner organizations), our final expense for the development of the trail guide was higher than anticipated, as we did not account for this expense in our initial budget. We faced this challenge by engaging older adults in Hamilton in a fundraiser to assist with these costs.