Research Objective: To describe the experiences of two Manitoba communities in becoming more age-friendly.
This project is designed to track and describe how two 'pilot' communities that participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Age-Friendly Cities Project (Portage la Prairie) and the Canadian Age-Friendly Rural/Remote Communities Project (Gimli), respectively, begin to implement age-friendliness within their respective communities. Of particular relevance is how each community uses the learning that took place during the earlier focus groups and which has been summarized in a report provided to each community. This proposed research will describe community level goal setting and decision-making processes in relation to age-friendliness, identification of challenges faced and how they are addressed, documentation of successes in improving age-friendliness, and indicators that positive changes are occurring within the community.
The process of implementation will be observed and described by study researchers acting as participant observers through attendance at local age-friendly advisory group meetings. Researchers will also conduct periodic telephone interviews with individual members of the age-friendly advisory groups to discuss various issues that emerge as the group moves forward with an age-friendly agenda.