Annual age-friendly forum
Summary
The City of Waterloo is an age-friendly city, where people of all ages thrive and grow. This commitment is reflected in the work of the city’s age-friendly Waterloo multi-agency committee. This committee established a mechanism to include older people, developed and administered a baseline assessment tool of the age-friendliness of our city and developed a city-wide action plan based on the findings. The committee and city staff work in partnership with Dr. John Lewis of the University of Waterloo to continually assess and improve age-friendliness in the community. One of the outcomes is an annual forum on age-friendliness. The forum has been operating annually for the past six years, covering a range of topics from housing, inclusion to this year’s topic on the value of life-long learning. This year’s forum, hosted by the Mayor of Waterloo, focused on life-long learning. Guest speakers covering a range of topics: life-long learning from an indigenous perspective, technology and our senior citizens (orchestrated and presented by students from a local high school), and aging with pride as an LBGTQ senior. These forums operate to a full house of residents.
Website: http://www.waterloo.ca/agefriendly
Key facts
Other target group(s): The work targets all ages from elementary age to seniors and is inclusive of various cultures in Waterloo.
Sector(s): Social protection
Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions
- Ageism
- Accessibility
- Intergenerational activities
- Inequities