This survey is a snapshot in time and your answers need to reflect how you are living right now. For background, we conducted a baseline assessment of the age friendliness of our City back in 2020, so the 2023 survey will enable Council to assess whether there have been any improvements following the implementation of our age-friendly strategy over the past three years. This survey along with that gathered through other Council and externally conducted surveys, will also guide and inform our further planning, policies, programs and services to improve the age-friendliness of our community over the coming years.

An age-friendly community is an inclusive and accessible community environment that optimises opportunities for health, participation and security for all people, in order that quality of life and dignity are maintained as people get older. The World Health Organisation has identified eight key domains that impact the age-friendliness of a community:

• Outdoor spaces and buildings
• Transportation
• Housing
• Social participation
• Respect and social inclusion
• Civic participation and employment
• Communication and information
• Community and health services.

An age-friendly community is where older people have a stronger voice in deciding what social and environmental aspects of their area need to be more aligned with the needs of older people. Some of the thousands of age-friendly communities initiatives that are in place include:

• The City of Boroondara (Victoria) have been creating intergenerational connections by connection local families with older people through a meal sharing program “The Casserole Club”.
• The New York City council installed thousands of city benches near pedestrian lights and also lengthened the time of the pedestrian light as part of their City Benches program.
• In Porta Portugal, the council co-hosted art and cultural exhibits to tell the life stories of older people in the community.
• In South Delhi India, a program was created to increase safety on the streets. Older people were introduced to the patrol police in their area – met them personally and exchanged contact details.

As part of our engagement with the community, in mid 2020 we released a comprehensive Age-friendly Knox survey which was sent to over 3000 older Knox residents via mail and made available online to the rest of the community more broadly. The purpose of this survey was to find out how healthy and active our older community is, and, what they think Council and the community should prioritise to create an age friendly community.

A summary of the survey results can be found here.