As the global population ages, the places in which we age are rightfully receiving increased attention. In this symposium we will focus on how the WHO Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) framework has been utilised to achieve a better understanding of the places of ageing, with particular attention to the diversity within and between places. Since its launch over a fifteen years ago, the AFCC framework has proved to be a popular tool for assisting city officials (and other stakeholders) to understand the needs of the ageing population and to implement age-friendly programmes to help meet these needs. The research discussed in this symposium pays particular attention to the lived experience of ‘ageing in place’, and how AFCC have evolved (or could evolve) to respond to urban change. First, Buffel will provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges of using the AFCC framework to support ageing in place. Building on ideas around spatial justice and the right to an age-friendly community, the presentation will provide inspiration for ways in which the age-friendly movement can evolve going forward. Second, Doran will report on empirical findings from a transnational ‘Ageing in Place in Cities’ programme, using a spatial justice lens to report how equity, diversity and co-production can be incorporated into age-friendly programmes. Third, Rémillard-Boilard will present findings from a province-wide study in Quebec, sharing comparative insights into the evolution of age-friendly policies across a diverse range of cities and communities. To conclude, Lafortune employs the concept of ‘social value’ to present findings relating to the evaluability of AFCC initiatives. The results assess the value of age-friendly work and demonstrate a methodology to inform future policy and practice. At the end of these four presentations, we will invite discussion addressing the evolving nature of AFCC and future directions for this movement.

This presentation provides an overview of the main challenges and opportunities associated with developing age-friendly cities and communities to support ‘ageing in place’, a term used to describe the goal of helping people to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as they wish. However, whilst this has been the dominant approach, the places in which older people are ageing have often proved to be challenging environments. This presentation explores the forces behind these developments and responses by older people themselves. It sets out the importance of a focus social and economic inequalities, and their consequences, for research and policy on ageing in place. The implications of such inequalities for age-friendly policy and practice will be discussed, arguing that unless they pay attention to questions of inequality and social justice, such programmes run the very real risk of amplifying inequalities. An overview of the key challenges for the future of the age-friendly movement will be presented, together with a manifesto to inspire progress for the movement, one which builds on ideas around spatial justice and the right to an age-friendly community.

This paper reports on findings from the ‘Ageing in Place in Cities’ project, a programme of work that is examining population ageing across seven transnational age-friendly cities. We have explored the ways cities respond to the challenges associated with different types of demographic change and population ageing, with particular attention to the extent that initiatives aimed at supporting ‘ageing in place’ reflect the social and ethnic diversity of ageing populations in cities. The research is being conducted from a critical gerontology perspective and has adopted a spatial justice lens by centring the concepts of equity, diversity and co-production in our underpinning theoretical framework. Drawing on examples from seven cities (Akita, Bilbao, Brno, Brussels, Manchester, Oslo and Québec), this paper examines how age-friendly programmes have worked to achieve and sustain age-friendly change. Using mixed methods, we first developed descriptive profiles for each city using both census and other local demographic data to explore how the populations have changed over time, and narratives and policy documents detailing the interventions used to support ageing in place. Through the development of the city profiles, we were able to better understand the socio-political context of each city. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a variety of actors in each city to examine how the cities delivered age-friendly change. We integrated the data using a comparative case study approach to draw out insights across the cities. Our findings reveal the role of key leaders and community-based stakeholders in age-friendly cities and the importance of a place-based understanding of lived experiences. The findings and discussion will be of relevance to policy makers and academics interested in population ageing and urban change.

Despite a growing interest for the development of age-friendly cities and communities worldwide, significant gaps in knowledge remain regarding how the age-friendly framework is implemented in practice and how local actors experience this process. The current lack of empirical and comparative studies on age-friendly developments makes it difficult to draw conclusions on the progress of the age-friendly movement and improve current practices. This paper reports on a study documenting the experience of cities and regions involved in Quebec’s provincial age-friendly programme. A survey of 82 questions was completed by representatives from 367 age-friendly cities and regions of different sizes across the province. The paper will explore four themes in more depth: their motivation for adopting the age-friendly framework; how they have addressed the different domains of age-friendliness; what they identify as the key success factors and challenges for developing age-friendly policies; and what they perceive as the key benefits of developing this work. Differences will be highlighted by city sizes, illustrating the importance of understanding this process in its context. The paper will conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the age-friendly movement and providing pointers for research and policy developments in this area.

The substantial investment in Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCCs) worldwide makes it imperative to understand whether they are effective, and what value they generate for individuals and communities. This paper reports on a multi-method study that trials the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology in four study sites in England. Employing the concept of ‘social value’, we will first present the rational for such evaluation building on findings from a systematic review of the SROI of ageing-well interventions delivered in the community. We will describe how we worked with our four study sites to prioritise outcomes and interventions to evaluate using methods that prioritise engagement with both stakeholders and members of the community to ensure relevance. Against the backdrop of a new framework on the evaluability of AFCC initiatives, we will then present data driven examples of the SROI of AFCC initiatives and close with an overview of the ongoing development of an accessible online resource to build capacity for evaluation in practice. The project provides a sound evidence base and a robust methodology to assess the value of age-friendly work, and to inform policy and practice in a context of the WHO/UN decade of ageing.