Welcome to the Age-Friendly Niagara Network (AFNN) Update! You are receiving this e-newsletter because you opted into the AFNN database to receive regular emails about age-friendly activity happening across Niagara.
AFNN Leadership Council Update
Season’s Greetings!
We are happy to be reaching out with a final newsletter for 2020! AFNN leaders have been continuously working throughout this year to collaborate and identify pandemic-related challenges facing older adults in Niagara. This work culminated in the production of Addressing COVID-19 Impacts on Niagara’s Older Adults in October 2020.
The AFNN Leadership Council is beginning work on strategic priorities for 2021 and beyond, including a focus on establishing a Council on Aging in Niagara.
The Network is a partner in a submission for research funding in conjunction with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Brock University that plans to study the role of volunteer older adults across Niagara that are involved in the municipalities’ age-friendly/seniors’ advisory committees.
INCommunities has been collaborating with AFNN in an effort to support their TECH CONNECT project, a partnership between INCommunities and Cyber-Seniors that aims to reduce social isolation experienced by seniors during COVID-19 by providing free technology training and preparing them for virtual volunteering.
For more information regarding TECH CONNECT, please click here.
Wishing you all a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season!
Presentation to Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission
We are pleased to report that our advocacy efforts related to long-term care, as channeled through the Ontario Association of Councils on Aging (OACA), have produced some positive results.
Dominic Ventresca had the opportunity to address some of the issues surrounding long-term care homes that have been raised during our May and October virtual meetings with the AFNN Leadership Council and the members of local municipal advisory committees. Through a presentation to the Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission. During the presentation, the Commissioners engaged in dialogue with the OACA president and Dominic, and the Lead Commissioner commented that our framework for understanding the context for long-term care and the recommendations to government would be helpful as the Commission progresses.
The Commission has full transcripts available on their website; this presentation should be available in the upcoming weeks. Below you will find links to OACA’s Long-Term Care COVID Commission presentation, and OACA’s letters to Premier Ford regarding long-term care from June and November.
Please consider sharing the following material with your network as appropriate.
OACA’s Long-Term Care COVID Commission Presentation
OACA Letter to Premier Ford re: LTC – June 30, 2020
OACA Letter to Premier Ford re: LTC – November 26, 2020
Ontario Age Friendly Communities (AFC) Outreach Program Resource Update
Ontario AFC Outreach Program has a freshly updated website – www.agefriendlyontario.ca! Take a browse through to find over 70 profiles of age-friendly community initiatives in Ontario; resources, guides and webinars on age-friendly planning and implementation; and our interactive maps that display hundreds of age-friendly activities organized by the eight age-friendly domains.
Please share your feedback with Lisa Brancaccio, Age-Friendly Communities Knowledge Broker, at brancacl@providencecare.ca!
Free Webinar from Brock University’s Lifespan Development Research Institute’s Community Speaker Series
Please join Brock University’s Lifespan Development Research Institute’s Community Speaker Series – Learning more, not less – Memory as we age, on Thursday, January 28 from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
Topic:
How does our memory for events change as we get older and what do these changes mean for our memory in everyday life? This free webinar presented by Brock University’s Dr. Karen Campbell will explore that question while discussing:
- What happens to memory as we age
- Different research looking at memory
- Ways to improve memory for events
How do I register? This webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required to gain access to the online event. RSVP online at https://brocku.ca/lifespan-development-research/aging-memory
For more information, please contact Jayne Morrish at jmorrish@brocku.ca
Lifespan Speaker Series Poster: Learning more, not less – Memory as we age
University of Guelph and Brock University Research Project Ask
Representatives from the University of Guelph and Brock University are looking for examples of age-friendly communities and initiatives, with a specific focus on the inclusion of LGBTQ2S+ people.
At this stage, researchers are conducting a broad environmental scan across Canada and internationally, and would like to invite you to complete the survey linked below. The survey will take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Please feel free to circulate the survey through your network. Participants can be those involved in programs for older adults, LGBTQ2S+ initiatives, service providers, community members or volunteers.
Link to survey: https://uoguelph.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3Ob8h0vCZQnAKFL
Latest ‘In the News’ items added to agefriendlyniagara.com
(scroll down for link to read the news articles)
- Douglas Rapelje named 2020 T. Roy Adams Humanitarian Award Recipient
- IN IT TOGETHER: Creating a positive healthcare experience through wayfinding, featuring John Meguerian
- People with dementia among hardest hit by COVID-19 health restrictions
Click here to read the news articles
Questions? Contact us at: info@agefriendlyniagara.com
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