An age-friendly strategy now in the works in New West aims to help the city plan to meet the needs of an aging population.
The strategy is a collaboration between the City of New Westminster and University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. UBC students Amy McDonald, Vivian Wong and Dustin Lupick are working on the strategy that aims to inform decision-making so the city can better respond and meet the unique, diverse and changing needs of New Westminster’s older adults and seniors.
“A big question we are asked is, what does age friendly mean? In New Westminster in particular, right now 15 per cent of the population is over 65,” Lupick said. “By 2040 it’s expected to be over a quarter.”
Lupick said the strategy will look at what can be done proactively to address an aging population, rather than reacting and having to put in infrastructure twice as the city’s population ages.
“We are looking at people being able to age in place, being able to age in the neighbourhoods they are in and being able to age as part of the community that they currently reside in,” he said. “We are looking at active aging. The older population of the past is different than the one of the present. It’s also going to be different for the one of the future. As this changes, we want to make sure this is a city that changes as well.”
Accessibility is another component of the strategy.
“New Westminster is very strong in this respect but we are looking at making the city universally accessible for everyone,” Lupick said. “We are of the opinion that if you can make a city that is good for the most vulnerable people then it’s going to be good for a large portion of the population.”
The UBC students have been working on the strategy with John Stark, the city’s senior social planner/acting planning director. They’ve also been interviewing senior staff in various city departments.
“Because the age-friendly strategy is such a large scope, it touches on every single aspect of the city,” Lupick said. “It affects engineering, it affects transportation, it affects parks. There’s not really any aspect of community that is not affected by this.”
About 70 community members attended a Jan. 14 consultation event at Century House and shared their thoughts on the strategy that aims to get input from people of all ages. The UBC students are also trying to connect with at-risk and isolated seniors to get their input so they can create a strategy that helps everyone.
In addition to input from community members and staff, the university students are reviewing proactive studies on aging that have been done in cities in Canada and around the world.
According to Lupick, the students and city plan to finish the draft strategy in March and present the information at Anvil Centre.
“I think everyone is aware that our communities are aging into the future and New Westminster is going to follow that similar trend,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “I think the time to start planning for that is now and making sure that our community is able to accept that.”
The School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC (SCARP) is hosting the March 31 event at Anvil Centre.
“It is being put on by SCARP and will be a showcase not only for our age-friendly community strategy but all the work completed by SCARP students through their respective studio projects,” Lupick said. “The projects take place all over British Columbia and this event will be the culmination.”
Anyone wanting to get involved in the age-friendly community strategy can contact Lupick at [email protected].
