Adding life to years
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Summary

In consultation with older adults during the Age-Friendly Durham planning process, it was revealed that ageism negatively impacts feelings of social inclusion and safety in the community. Inspired by this feedback, the Region of Durham and the Durham Council on Aging launched the Beauty of Experience Campaign to combat widely accepted myths and negative stereotypes of older adults.

This initiative was funded by the province of Ontario. The campaign featured stories of 24 older adults across our 8 area municipalities who endorse continuous learning, creativity, volunteerism and employment participation. These diverse stories were featured in a poster series and educational video and disseminated throughout local newspaper, radio, and Durham Region Transit advertising, and Durham Region’s Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook platforms. Social media posts were informational and debunked aging myths to educate the community about the aging experience.

Campaign messaging illustrated positive attributes of aging including wisdom, experience, and skills. Importantly, it reached community members of all ages, fostering communal understanding of the diverse realities of aging, and promoted social inclusion and increased safety for older adults in Durham. It was a positive experience for participants and provided a sense of social connectedness that was missing through the global pandemic.

Website: https://www.durham.ca/agefriendly

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Education, Information and communication

Other sector(s): Respect and Social Inclusion, Social Participation, Civic Participation and Employment

Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Ageism
  • Inclusion

Contact details

Name: CSWB Plan

Email address: cswb@durham.ca

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Other

Other project lead: Regional Municipality of Durham

Others involved in the project:
  • Volunteers

How collaboration worked: Funding was received from a Seniors Community Grant from the Government of Ontario. Community and municipal partners, and older adult residents who sit on the Durham Council on Aging collaborated with the Regional staff to develop key campaign messaging, timelines, and recruitment of older adults to be featured in the campaign.

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 adult members of the Durham Council of Aging contributed to establishing Project messaging, themes, and activities in tandem with community partners and institutional members of the Council on Aging. Twenty-four older adults from the community volunteered to be featured in campaign educational video and poster series.

Moving forward

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

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Feedback:
Increased awareness was demonstrated by the number of views reached via media outlets advertising the campaign which reached all corners of Durham Region. Campaign messaging had the potential to reach up to approximately 169,000 listeners of local radio stations, roughly 71,000 readers of local newspapers, roughly 351, 000 visitors at various public transit bus shelter locations, and reached approximately 42,000 views on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook feeds. Engagement highlighted unique challenges older adults face and many positive feelings for showcasing older adults in a positive light from a public platform.

Expansion plans:
Combating ageism is an ongoing process and affects age cohorts younger than those aged 55+. Increasing widespread awareness of ageism will continue with the launch of an intergenerational anti-ageism campaign later in 2021, highlighting ageism experienced by older adults and other non-senior age groups.

Looking back

Challenges:
Due to COVID-19, many projects and services pivoted to accommodate the changing needs of the community consequently pausing the development of this campaign. Once it was safe to resume, we fulfilled our goal of featuring 24 older adults in the campaign and provided positive messaging during the holiday season, a time that is particularly isolating for older adults. To accommodate restrictions placed on in-person services and programs, we worked swiftly to convert print posters into an accessible, digital document to maintain engagement with community partners and area municipalities. Prioritizing a portion of funding in creating fully accessible print and digital alternatives should be prioritized for future projects to adapt to the virtual landscape resulting from COVID-19.