Age-Friendly Communities
Are Empowering Seniors to Thrive

The New Brunswick Age-Friendly Community Recognition Program is a way of encouraging communities and municipalities across the province to become welcoming places for all ages. The program encourages the creation of policies, services and structures that promote healthy aging and wellness.

The Age-Friendly Community movement encourages healthy aging and wellness under the following eight areas:

• outdoor spaces and buildings
• transportation
• housing
• social participation
• respect and social inclusion
• civic participation and employment
• communication and information
• community support and health services

Work in these key areas can help seniors to live in secure, healthy environments where they can contribute fully to society.

An age-friendly community is a place where seniors can flourish. When a community takes on age-friendly initiatives, it’s creating a supportive place where seniors are respected for their contributions and strengths. This helps build communities that are more inclusive for everyone.

What are the Rewards?
Recognition for a community’s commitment to become age-friendly will include:

• An Age-Friendly Recognition Plaque and a Pull-Up Banner for display in the community.
• A one-page action summary highlighting steps and initiatives taken to achieve age-friendly status will be posted on the department’s Age Friendly Community web page to recognize the community’s leadership and achievement.
• An opportunity to receive national recognition from the Public Health Agency of Canada and an invitation to join the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities.

PHAC is promoting the implementation of the Age-Friendly Communities (AFC) model throughout Canada by working with provinces and territories, engaging partners, sharing experiences and resources with individuals, community agencies, and other groups interested in becoming more age-friendly. This Age-Friendly Communities in Canada: Community Implementation Guide is one of the resources developed by PHAC to assist communities to start up, implement and evaluate their age-friendly initiative. It is easy to use and contains lots of practical information and ideas that can help any community become more age-friendly.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has put together this Toolbox, which contains many practical tools and resources to help make your community more age-friendly. These tools include great examples from across Canada of work plans, time lines, checklists, potential funders and guidelines to help you implement and assess your progress in developing your age-friendly community.

This Toolbox is intended for use by seniors, business people, city/town planners, community groups, municipal officials, recreation coordinators and other concerned citizens who are interested in developing or updating strategies for age-friendly communities. It is designed to guide the development and assessment of projects toward the age-friendly goal. Best communication practices are also provided to help deliver age-friendly messages consistently and effectively.

The journey toward becoming an Age-Friendly Community requires ongoing commitment and action from the community.  To maintain their Age-Friendly Community Recognition status, municipalities/communities must demonstrate this ongoing commitment and update their action plan every three years. This form indicates what documentation must be submitted to maintain your communities Age-Friendly Community Status.