The AFC movement has gained considerable momentum over the past several years, with a steadily growing base of knowledge and a wealth of resources that can guide you through a successful AFC planning process. Although these resources have helped many communities explore AFC issues, the practical question that often remains is, Where do we begin? This guide consolidates existing resources into a single document and outlines a process that helps to answer this question.

Ontario is a large province with a complex geographic distribution of residents in terms of age, gender, culture, ethnicity, health status, housing tenure and income across urban and rural communities. This means that specific issues, resident needs, policies and program priorities will differ between communities. Becoming ‘age-friendly’ may involve different approaches and priorities from one community to the next.

A community’s history, size or preferred approach to decision-making may mean choosing a process led by local government, while others may find an approach driven by the collaboration of volunteers and community organizations more desirable. This guide is designed to meet the needs of different audiences who want to further their local AFC movement.

The Four Steps of the AFC Process

The guide provides information about, and resources for, each step in the AFC process in Sections 4 through 7. The four steps of the AFC process are:

Step 1: Defining Local Principles

Step 2: Custom Needs Assessment

Step 3: Developing an Action Plan

Step 4: Implementation and Evaluation

Some communities are already well along the AFC path, while others are just beginning. You can use this guide as a reference for the AFC process as a whole or as a directory that can quickly connect you to detailed resources that are relevant to your community’s immediate AFC planning needs. The guide is divided into sections to enable you to use specific resources without needing to refer to the entire document.

Becoming an AFC is a cyclical and ongoing process that is complementary to and compatible with mainstream planning and development work underway within communities.

After implementing community projects under step 4 you may decide to return to step 1 to determine if your community’s goals and values have changed or if there are other areas or projects that could enhance your AFC status.

To meet your needs more directly, the guide leads you through the process of creating a personalized tool kit designed around the specific challenges faced by your community. Section 3 presents background information about the value of AFC planning and introduces the concept of Age-Friendly Community “Dimensions,” while Sections 4 through 6 present a more detailed discussion of the AFC planning process. The guide discusses the desired skill sets for that stage of the process and recommends partnership options that may help you complete the steps outlined.

To access the information you need now, examine the following diagram, which contains descriptions of circumstances common to three stages in the AFC process. Drawing on local experiences, determine which situation best reflects the status of your community. Once you have an idea of where you are, use the diagram to determine which part of the process you are interested in and where you might head next. then, simply turn to the section of the guide that contains the resources that are most in line with your current needs.

Is this your community?

  • Little discussion about older adults’ needs goes on in the general community.
  • The idea of becoming an AFC has never arisen at town/city council.
  • Focus groups have not been held to discuss the implications of being an ‘older’ community.
  • No community-wide survey of older adults’ needs has been conducted.
  • No steering committee exists to carry the AFC movement.

Read Sections 2 and 3 to learn about AFC planning, then focus on Section 4, which presents tools for starting a local AFC initiative.

  • The idea of becoming an AFC is part of discussions in the community and at town/city council.
  • Several focus groups have been held to discuss the implications of being an ‘older’ community.
  • A community-wide assessment of older adults’ needs is the logical next step, but questions about what data to collect and how to collect it still exist.
  • Knowing the range of existing information gathering tools and what AFC-related areas they focus on would make the path forward clearer.

Review the p-e fit concept and AFC dimensions (Sections 2 and 3) and read Section 5 to see how to create a custom needs assessment.

  • Several focus groups have been held to discuss the implications of being an ‘older’ community.
  • A community-wide assessment of older adults’ needs has been conducted and the results have been compiled into a council report.
  • An advisory group exists to lead the AFC process.
  • The town/city council report will serve as the basis for an age-friendly action plan, but questions about creating, implementing and monitoring such a plan still exist.

See Sections 6 and 7 for resources about writing, implementing and evaluating an AFC action plan.

Eastern Ontario

Ottawa’s Age-friendly Community Experience

The Path to Membership in the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities

What has Ottawa done?

The Age-Friendly Ottawa Project (AFO) is a partnership between the Council on Aging of Ottawa (COA), the City of Ottawa, and the Centre for Governance of the University of Ottawa, as well as other community organizations. The Age-Friendly Ottawa Steering Committee was formed in 2009 and funding for the project was received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, New Horizons for Seniors Program and the Community Foundation of Ottawa in 2010. Ottawa City Council spearheaded the concurrent development of a comprehensive Older Adult Plan to develop concrete and actionable recommendations to address the current and future needs of older adults. Research was conducted in collaboration with community groups, seniors’ organizations and service providers, and resulted in two published reports.

How did Ottawa get there?

2009: Formation November 2010: Project received funding from the Ontario Trillium of the Age-Friendly Foundation, New Horizons for Seniors Program, and the Community Ottawa Steering Foundation of Ottawa Committee 2012: Development of Older Adult Plan, including Late 2011: October: Seniors’ Summit 74 actions to improve levels of age-friendliness in hosted by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson in key service areas of municipal responsibility, partnership with the Council on Aging. such as installing automatic doors at City Summit launched a dialogue with older buildings and additional benches in parks adults, re-affirming the City’s commitment and roadways to the Older Adult Plan Ottawa City Council approved Online, telephone and paper surveys and $500,000 in annual operating community consultations conducted with funding for the implementation 630 older adults and stakeholders of the Older Adult Plan 2013: January: Inaugural meeting of the Seniors March: Recognition and celebration of Ottawa’s Roundtable, a forum for City of Ottawa staff to membership in the WHO Global Network of Age-seek community input related to emerging issues Friendly Cities of concern to older adults June: Age-Friendly Ottawa launched its March: Older Adult Plan officially launched by “Community Framework and Building an Mayor Jim Watson and the Council on Aging Age-Friendly Business Community” project of Ottawa

What are Ottawa’s Next Steps?

The COA has developed a Community Action Plan that aligns with the Older Adult Plan and identifies key actions that can be undertaken by the community and the private sector. The Community Action Plan will be presented to seniors and other stakeholders. The Council on Aging of Ottawa is already undertaking a number of actions identified in this plan, including improvements to outdoor spaces and transportation. Age-Friendly Ottawa has also recently launched a Business Recognition Project that will engage seniors in recognizing, acknowledging and highlighting exemplary age-friendly business practices in Ottawa.

To learn from other community experiences, visit http://healthy.uwaterloo.ca/~afc/community_stories.html