Age-Friendly Communities Evaluation Guide: Using Indicators to Measure Progress

The Public Health Agency of Canada has prepared the Age-Friendly Communities Evaluation Guide to provide communities with practical information on how to use indicators to measure progress and evaluate their age-friendly initiatives. Age-friendly communities are those communities that are taking steps to help their older residents remain healthy, active and independent, and to continue to make important contributions as they age.

The Guide focuses on one important aspect of developing and maintaining an age-friendly community: the use of indicators in planning, implementing and evaluating age-friendly community initiatives. The Guide not only provides information on how and why the use of indicators can strengthen community age-friendly initiatives, it also offers a menu of specific, measurable indicators that are applicable to the eight domains of community life that are being addressed in age-friendly programming. The Guide also includes four other indicators that reflect longer-term health and social outcomes for seniors as the final fruits of age-friendly programming.

The Guide provides practical and flexible indicators that are supplemented by ready-to-use or adapted tools, as well as links to additional information to support community evaluations. It also outlines the benefits of evaluation and how your community can make the most of evaluation results to strengthen and improve your programs, increase community interest, attract funders and meet their needs. The intention is to provide a variety of solid and sound ways to evaluate and to take some of the mystery out of evaluating age-friendly community initiatives.

Access the Guide here: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/seniors-aines/indicators-indicateurs-eng.php