UFV’s Centre for Education and Research on Ageing (CERA) is currently leading an initiative to achieve Age-Friendly University (AFU) status. The AFU designation and movement emerged from the World Health Organization call for global efforts to better needs of a growing older population and address the negative impacts of ageism. In response, Dublin City University initiated the AFU movement, developing 10 guiding principles to support university programming and policies designed to support intergenerational connections, ageing research and scholarship, and lifelong learning.
There are currently AFUs across Britain, Europe, the US, and Canada. The first Canadian AFU was the University of Manitoba; and, CERA is hoping that UFV will be recognized as the first AFU in BC.
To that end, this fall CERA formed a task force with membership from both UFV and our local external communities. Additionally, recently CERA was awarded a Strategic Imperatives Plan grant through the Provost’s office. This funding will support an audit of UFV’s age-friendliness in the spring of 2022 exploring what is currently in place and areas for improvement and growth regarding supporting the principles of AFU status. We are planning to submit our application to Dublin City University for AFU status in spring 2022.
https://ufv.ca/aging/age-friendly-university-/
For more information, contact Elicia Tournier at elicia.tournier@ufv.ca
01/20/2022