The Age-Friendly Cities project in Quebec (2008-2013)

The AFM approach in Quebec really took off in 2008 while, Marguerite Blais, the Minister responsible for seniors, made it a priority and funded an experimental project over five years. Conducted in seven pilot sites throughout Quebec by a team from the Research Centre on Aging of the CSSS-IUGS, the AFC-QC project favours a bottom-up approach which made the promotion of the participation of seniors in all stages of the project. It also includes a participatory approach in developing communities (from the Madrid Plan, 2002) which will encourage intersectorial actors of the partnership established in local steering committees, to combine their respective interests to improve the seniors’ quality of life in their community.

The seven sites participating in the Age-Friendly Cities project of the Research Centre on Aging of the CSSS-IUGS Sherbrooke:

          – The borough of Charlesbourg (in the Quebec City area)
          – Drummondville
          – Granby
          – The RCM of Témiscamingue
          – Rimouski
          – Rivière-du-Loup
          – Sherbrooke

In a lecture delivered in Vancouver, as part of the Public Health Summer School of the Public Health Association of British Columbia, Suzanne Garon, principal investigator of the AFC-QC project, presented each of the phases that led to the AFM initiative in Quebec.

Phase 1 : The origins (2006-2007)

Phase 2 : The pilot project (2008-2013)

A three-step project :

Step 1 – The social diagnosis
Step 2 – The action plan
Step 3 – The implementation

Phase 3: AFM-QC (launching in 2009)