Grey County’s age-friendly community efforts are guided by the following vision: “Grey County and its communities will create inclusive opportunities for people of all ages to actively participate in all stages of life, and to thrive physically and economically, with dignity and independence.”

The County recently completed its first Age-Friendly Community Strategy and Action Plan, both of which are intended to serve as guiding documents for future policy, program, and strategic plan development corporately and community-wide. Throughout the completion of this project, it was made clear that work is already being done at the County to make it more age-friendly.

Amongst many others, some of the key organizations that have pursued age-friendly programming include: Grey Bruce Council on Aging, Alzheimer Society Grey Bruce, Grey Bruce Public Health, and Home & Community Support Services Grey Bruce. A background policy review was completed of some of the regional and municipal documents to assess the prevalence of age-friendly community planning and support. Evidence of age-friendly efforts were found in urban planning documents, government and community group discussion papers, research projects, development guidelines, and other strategic action plans.

To begin enhancing and promoting age-friendly efforts, Grey County will look to create a designated age-friendly landing page on its corporate website. This will include public messaging, allow for coordinated information dissemination, share community funding opportunities, and serve to connect individuals to service providers, businesses, governments sites and other useful resources.

Because Grey County’s Age-Friendly Community Strategy and Action Plan is still in its infancy, significant implementation progress is intended to take place over the next 1-5 years. With a commitment from staff to bring forward a yearly progress report, and to follow through with project monitoring, the County is confident there is a strong foundation in place to support moving toward a more age-friendly community.