Supporting communities to become age friendly is one of the most effective strategies to create thriving places in which everyone can live, learn, work, play and age to the best of their abilities. ‘Understanding your Community: An age-friendly checklist’ is based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Checklist of Essential Features of Age-friendly Cities and incorporates steps to Engage and Understand, Plan, Act and Measure – so that communities can come together to see themselves from the perspectives of older people. A launch of this checklist will take place on Friday, 4 December – online – at 10:00am
About this Event
Supporting communities to become age friendly is one of the most effective strategies to create thriving places in which everyone can live, learn, work, play and age to the best of their abilities.
‘Understanding your community: An age-friendly checklist’ is a way for communities to come together to see themselves from the perspective of older people. It provides an opportunity to identify and understand what’s working well, and areas that could be improved to become more age friendly.
Creating age-friendly environments is crucial for communities to be places where older people can continue to develop personally, contribute to their communities, and age safely in a place that is right for them. Such places promote health, remove barriers to participation, and provide support to people experiencing losses in mental or physical capacity.
The checklist is based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Checklist of Essential Features of Age-friendly Cities (2007) and Public Health Agency of Canada’s Age Friendly Rural and Remote Communities: A Checklist (2007). These checklists were adapted following a review of Australian and international research on what helps people live a good later life in rural settings, and an analysis of the views of older people found in local data collections from the WAVE project led by La Trobe University and Northeast Health Wangaratta, Indigo Shire’s Ageing Well initiative, Benalla’s Age Friendly Communities survey findings, and Upper Hume Primary Care Partnership’s ‘Liveability with an Age-Friendly Lens’ project.
Residents in all communities across the Mansfield Shire Council, through their Age-Friendly Mansfield project, trialled the checklist, providing constructive advice and valuable feedback.
The Age Friendly Rural Victoria Checklist follows the eight domains of the original WHO checklist, reflecting the essential, interconnected areas of life that impact on our ability to age well.
The guide was developed by Dr Kathleen Brasher, Principal Strategic Advisor – Age-Friendly Communities, and Dr Rachel Winterton, Senior Research Fellow, John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University.
This virtual event will launch the guide.
The event will be facilitated by Huw Brokensha (Manager, Community Development, Wodonga Council) and speakers will include Dr Kathleen Brasher, who will provide background to the checklist, and Dr Alana Hulme (Department of Health and Human Services, Ovens Murray), who will launch the checklist.
Download the Age-Friendly Checklist (PDF)
Event Details
Event: ‘Understanding your community’ Virtual Launch
Presenter: Friendly Northeast Victoria Alliance
Date: Friday, 4 December 2020
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM AEDT
Location: Online Event
Register: Online at Eventbrite
A Zoom link for this event will be sent to your email a week before the event.
Queries: Contact kathleen.brasher@centralhumepcp.org
