PART 1: STARTING

Gathering Feedback

people together in a lobby with a feedback box

Now that you have your message ready, it is time to consider how you will share it with your neighbours and how you will ask them for feedback. Our goal in this step is to generate feedback and build a communal vision for what aging in place could look like in your building.

Host a meeting

Consider holding an open meeting, or series of meetings, where you gather senior residents and introduce them to the concept of 'aging in place' and mutual support. The purpose is to facilitate an open conversation with residents and ask "What are the main issues that are problematic for living alone" and "what would help"? The goal is to allow conversation to flow between residents and to listen deeply to what is being expressed. It can be helpful to have a couple of examples of activities or events in your back pocket to get conversation flowing.

Ask the community

Another option is to design a community survey - this can be given at the community meeting or be a separate thing. The more creative the better! If a formal survey feels too heavy handed, consider putting a suggestion box in the lobby with a thought provoking question such as ‘if we could make our building an exceptional place to grow old, what would be here?” Consider adding a place to collect email addresses and ask people if they would like to be included on an email list to stay informed.

Reach out to your neighbours

The next step is to reach out to your neighbours. Think about what kind of resources (such as people, community message boards or existing electronic email lists) you can use to ensure that the maximum number of people see your request for feedback.

In a tight-knit community, word-of-mouth is a great start, especially if you can build on existing relationships. If you have the support of the building management team, then community outreach could be a collaborative effort by leveraging existing communication channels.