Objectives and workpackages
Over 1100 cities all over the world have joined the Global Network for Age Friendly Cities and Communities of the World Health Organization (WHO). Every city or country has its own set of challenges and concerns in the quest to become more age-friendly. To date, many of the formal evaluations of age-friendliness have been qualitative in nature. A systematic quantitative approach to the assessment of the age-friendliness did not exist. Existing tools for local policy-makers and planners were too basic a support to improve age-friendliness at the local level, and did not include aspects of co-production.
The consortium works in partnership with older people, policy, practice, and community organisations to promote age-friendly urban environments, in which co-production and knowledge exchange are key elements.
In 2020, THUAS and partner organisations were commissioned by the Municipality of The Hague to conduct a representative quantitative field study on the perception of age-friendliness among a diverse cohort of older citizens. The 23-item Age Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was developed, which encompasses 8 domains of the WHO-model plus an additional 9th domain of financial situation. We wish to combine the AFCCQ with a qualitative instrument that allows for the collection and analysis of data (by older people themselves) on a neighbourhood or district level, and integrate data into a geoportal. A community-based approach further calls for the actual and active involvement of older people in evidence-informed policy making and implementation.
City&Co aims to develop an innovative tool for a community-based, mixed validated quantitative and qualitative assessment of age-friendly cities, that can be used in multiple countries. This tool should help cities to plan for, and implement, age-friendly strategies. Moreover, this tool is developed with the active involvement of both older people and policy makers, in order to build capacity through local ecosystems at the city- and neighbourhood level.
Workpackage 1
The first stage of City&Co concerns the cross-cultural validation of the age-friendly cities questionnaire (AFCCQ-NL) into Polish (AFCCQ-PL) and Romanian (AFCCQ-RO). This is followed by conducting a quantitative survey of the age-friendliness of The Hague, Wrocław, Kraków and Bucharest. Because of the increasing importance of sustainability, additional questions on this topic are developed.
Workpackage 2
The second stage of City&Co concerns the development of a geoportal following the user-centred design approach: a web-based solution for city workers, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), with an integrated audit tool to be used by older citizens.
Workpackage 3
The third stage of City&Co concerns the evaluation with older people using the geoportal over a six-month period, recording and auditing public spaces in their neighbourhoods in the four cities through photographs and textual comments with geotags. Older people are involved as citizen scientists, and can raise awareness of strong and weak age-friendly features of their respective neighbourhoods. A hot spot analysis is made when evaluating the geoportal, showing the results on a city map. A neighbourhood with low AFCCQ scores, with lots of data being sent in, requires priority for policy makers.
Workpackage 4
The fourth stage of City&Co revolves around older people and city workers drafting a strategic age-friendly agenda on evidence-informed policy and actions using the data gathered in the project. This work is done in co-creation sessions that are held in local ecosystems of older people and city workers in the four cities. Cities can tune their actions to the actual needs of citizens on the city, district or neighbourhood levels. The outcomes help optimise public funding, facilitate learning from best practices & citizens alike, and build an agenda for making cities more age-friendly, sustainable and liveable.
Workpackage Mutual Learning Visits
City&Co encourages the mutual learning by partners from different European contexts, learning and co-creation between older citizen scientists (civic participation) and between city workers. City&Co is about knowledge transfer between the various stakeholders in “learning ecosystems”, requiring separate didactic approaches.
The consortium works in partnership with older people, policy, practice, and community organisations to promote age-friendly urban environments, in which co-production and knowledge exchange are key elements.
In 2020, THUAS and partner organisations were commissioned by the Municipality of The Hague to conduct a representative quantitative field study on the perception of age-friendliness among a diverse cohort of older citizens. The 23-item Age Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was developed, which encompasses 8 domains of the WHO-model plus an additional 9th domain of financial situation. We wish to combine the AFCCQ with a qualitative instrument that allows for the collection and analysis of data (by older people themselves) on a neighbourhood or district level, and integrate data into a geoportal. A community-based approach further calls for the actual and active involvement of older people in evidence-informed policy making and implementation.
City&Co aims to develop an innovative tool for a community-based, mixed validated quantitative and qualitative assessment of age-friendly cities, that can be used in multiple countries. This tool should help cities to plan for, and implement, age-friendly strategies. Moreover, this tool is developed with the active involvement of both older people and policy makers, in order to build capacity through local ecosystems at the city- and neighbourhood level.
Workpackage 1
The first stage of City&Co concerns the cross-cultural validation of the age-friendly cities questionnaire (AFCCQ-NL) into Polish (AFCCQ-PL) and Romanian (AFCCQ-RO). This is followed by conducting a quantitative survey of the age-friendliness of The Hague, Wrocław, Kraków and Bucharest. Because of the increasing importance of sustainability, additional questions on this topic are developed.
Workpackage 2
The second stage of City&Co concerns the development of a geoportal following the user-centred design approach: a web-based solution for city workers, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), with an integrated audit tool to be used by older citizens.
Workpackage 3
The third stage of City&Co concerns the evaluation with older people using the geoportal over a six-month period, recording and auditing public spaces in their neighbourhoods in the four cities through photographs and textual comments with geotags. Older people are involved as citizen scientists, and can raise awareness of strong and weak age-friendly features of their respective neighbourhoods. A hot spot analysis is made when evaluating the geoportal, showing the results on a city map. A neighbourhood with low AFCCQ scores, with lots of data being sent in, requires priority for policy makers.
Workpackage 4
The fourth stage of City&Co revolves around older people and city workers drafting a strategic age-friendly agenda on evidence-informed policy and actions using the data gathered in the project. This work is done in co-creation sessions that are held in local ecosystems of older people and city workers in the four cities. Cities can tune their actions to the actual needs of citizens on the city, district or neighbourhood levels. The outcomes help optimise public funding, facilitate learning from best practices & citizens alike, and build an agenda for making cities more age-friendly, sustainable and liveable.
Workpackage Mutual Learning Visits
City&Co encourages the mutual learning by partners from different European contexts, learning and co-creation between older citizen scientists (civic participation) and between city workers. City&Co is about knowledge transfer between the various stakeholders in “learning ecosystems”, requiring separate didactic approaches.