The Ontario Age-Friendly Communities Outreach Program is excited to announce a special 5-part newsletter series Populations in Focus. This series will bring relevant research, best practices, and tools straight to your inbox. Over the course of five weeks, we will be spotlighting five populations of older adults to share recent evidence and highlight key considerations for age-friendly planning and implementation. Keep an eye on your inbox on Monday for the first issue.

Join us today from 12:00-1:00 p.m. (EST) for our webinar: Ontario Age-Friendly Community Planning Pre and Post-COVID: Looking Back to Plan a Path Forward where we will be launching a new resource: Planning a Virtual Conference: A Practical Guide. Register here.

On February 15^th from 12:00-1:00 p.m. (EST) learn about the Intersections between Caregiving and Age-Friendly Communities with Felicia Hart, Program and Service Lead for Workplace and Helpline at the Ontario Caregiver’s Organization. Register here.

Lastly, please find a selection of age-friendly news, events, and resources below.

Kind regards,
Emily Mullins
Age-Friendly Communities Knowledge Broker
mullinse@providencecare.ca

Age-Friendly News
Ontario

• Toronto: Can Canada Post workers be the answer for checking on lonely seniors? (Toronto Star)
• Tay Valley: Tay Valley Township co-housing plans catch the eye of the province (Inside Ottawa Valley)
• London: This City of London care home is celebrating a win. Can for-profit facilities share the same success? (CBC News)
• St. Catharines: Bonds between youth, seniors can boost mental health, says Health Sciences prof (The Brock News)
• Bay of Quinte: Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte get $30M from feds for LTC home (Global News)
• Provincial: Ontario Celebrates the Accomplishments of 16 Outstanding Seniors (Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility)
• Bradford: CONTACT Community Services offering seniors' wellness programs (Bradford Today)
• Kitchener-Waterloo: Government of Canada announces projects in the Kitchener-Waterloo area to support seniors (Cision)
• Peterborough: 6 projects supporting seniors’ health in Peterborough to share $116K in federal funding (Global News)
• Cambridge: Cambridge Community Projects Supporting Healthy Aging Receive Funding (YouAreUNLTD)

• National: National initiative will help Canadian companies get AgeTech solutions into the hands of older adults, caregivers and health care providers (Cision)
• British Columbia: Yes, to seniors' housing in my backyard (Vancouver Sun)
• British Columbia: Critical need for culturally appropriate seniors housing in Vancouver Chinatown: report (Vancouver Sun)

• United States: Why States Need Master Plans for Aging (Next Avenue)
• United States: ‘We were kindred spirits:’ As seniors battle a loneliness epidemic, the friendship of a 76- and 17-year-old shows connection has no limits (Fortune Well)

Upcoming Events

Featured News Story 

Funding Opportunity

• Be a permanent Ontario resident
• Be in financial need (combined household income of under $60,000) 
• Have a permanent ongoing or recurring disability that impedes mobility and results in substantial restrictions in activities of daily living (eating, bathing, toileting, transferring, and mobility) and/or getting in and out of your home to access essential medical care or community services 

Reading List

• Special Delivery: How Canadian Postal Workers Could Better Enable Ageing in the Right Place (National Institute on Ageing)
• Acting in Allyship with 2SLGBTQI People Living with Dementia (National Institute on Ageing)
• Intergenerational Community Planning (American Planning Association)
• World Social Report 2023: Leaving No One Behind In An Ageing World (United Nations)
• Living in an Age-Friendly Community: Evidence from a Masterplanned Development in Southwest Sydney (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health)
• Applying the Age-Friendly-Health System 4M Paradigm to Reframe Climate-Related Disaster Preparedness for Nursing Home Populations (Health Services Research)

Community of Interest on Social Isolation and Loneliness

• Click here to join this group.