AFC Webinar – Rural age-friendly communities in the 2020s: Insights from Trent University

A series of projects led by Elizabeth McCrillis and conducted by the Rural Aging Research Team at Trent University examines rural age-friendly initiatives and the factors that may help or hinder their sustainability. Age-friendly initiatives seek to help communities become more accessible to and inclusive of their aging population, however our research has demonstrated that rural initiatives are often challenged by limited human and financial resources. To explore this, we undertook a series of studies involving in-depth interviews with 92 age-friendly stakeholders, each exploring rural age-friendly implementation and sustainability. Our initial study put forward a model of emergent challenges and opportunities to sustaining age-friendly initiatives, followed by a series of projects to further develop the concept of age-friendly sustainability. Outcomes of this research will be shared, including suggested implications for age-friendly communities programs as we enter the 2020s and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.