Age-friendly communities

The Age-friendly communities guide is a tool to support local dialogue about the importance of age-friendly communities. It gives suggestions for how we can make where we live a great place to grow older.

What is an age-friendly community?

Age-friendly communities are places where age is not a barrier to living well and where the environment, activities and services support and enable older people to:

• have opportunities to enjoy life and feel well
• participate in society and be valued for their contribution
• have enough money to live well
• feel safe, comfortable and secure at home
• access quality health and care.

Why do we need age-friendly communities?

Living longer presents huge opportunities to create vibrant and resilient communities where older people can develop their interests and aspirations.

As we grow older, we often spend more time in our homes and communities, so our immediate environment has a significant impact on our health, wellbeing and the quality of our lives. Age-friendly communities are essential for our ageing population.

There is a growing recognition that too many of our communities are significantly underprepared to manage the challenges and unlock the potential of our ageing population.

In a significantly challenging financial context for local government, service providers and the communities they serve, there is a real need to work together to remove the barriers older people face to participating in their communities.

Who is the guide for?

This guide is a tool to support local dialogue with older people, decision makers and other key stakeholders about the importance of age-friendly communities.

It suggests five themes which local communities will need to address to unlock the potential of their ageing population, and showcases examples of successful local initiatives to make an area a better place to grow older.

Further reading