Since 2018, and continuing until December 2025, the project Ecosystem for an Age-Friendly Community has been ongoing in Vingåker. The project aims to address the demographic challenge of a growing older adult population and a decreasing proportion of working-age residents. Its targeted outcome is to be an age-friendly community by 2031. After the project concludes, starting in January 2026, it will become part of the municipality’s regular operations.

The project is part of Vinnova’s Challenge-Driven Innovation program, which funds collaborative projects that work long-term to solve societal challenges and contribute to the sustainability goals of Agenda 2030 (Vinnova is Sweden’s innovation agency). The project addresses the societal challenge of efficiently meeting service and security needs in both urban and rural areas, based on the conditions of a small municipality.

The solution hypothesis developed was that early introduction of support through social and digital structures can prolong health and delay the need for health and social care. During the project, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) work on age-friendly cities and communities was brought to attention and was deemed to align closely with the ongoing efforts of the project.

The project’s goal is to establish an ecosystem for an age-friendly community in Vingåker, where all parts of the municipality’s operations, civil society, relatives, and other stakeholders work together to enable individuals to age healthily, delay the need for care, and optimize the provision of care services.

During this third phase, a strategy for an age-friendly community has been developed to ensure long-term efforts toward establishing such a community. The strategy was adopted by the municipal council in April 2025. It is based on the eight domains in the WHO’s guide for age-friendly communities. In June 2025, a baseline was measured, after which each municipal committee will develop its own action plan.