Understanding the ways in which people grow older in rural areas, including the influence of primarily volunteer-based age-friendly initiatives, contributes to an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of rural population aging worldwide. Featuring five research projects associated with Trent University’s Centre for Aging and Society, this symposium will provide a Canadian perspective on rural aging, with a particular emphasis on rural age-friendly discourses, programming and research approaches. Divided into three themes, the symposium will explore 1) key debates in rural aging discourse, 2) age-friendly communities program development and sustainability, and 3) new ways of researching aging rural communities. Study 1 will describe how competing policies, discourses and practices relating to healthy aging and aging in place, rural citizenship and governmentality, and social inclusion and inequality combine in particular ways to empower or disempower a diverse range of older rural adults aging in a diverse range of rural communities. Study 2 will consider the limits to age-friendly programming sustainability within the context of volunteer burden and limited sustained funding, as well as creative approaches to facilitating sustainable programs in aging rural populations. Studies 3, 4, and 5 describe three new ways of researching aging rural communities in relation to arts and culture, public services, and housing. Specifically, these studies will include an innovative dance program for people with dementia, exploring the role of voluntarism in a local rural library system, and a feasibility study for an alternative seniors’ co-housing unit, based on the Abbeyfield model, in a small town. Discussions of these five unique studies will integrate themes of rural aging and the complex ways in which older people, carers, municipalities, and volunteer organizations influence, and are influenced by, individual and collective approaches taken to create supportive environments for people to age at home in rural and remote areas. Symposium: Aging rural communities: Discourses, policies, practices

Symposium overview:

This symposium has been designed to be of interest to those interested in rural aging, including researchers, policy makers, and community members. Understanding the ways in which people grow older in rural areas, including the influence of primarily volunteer-based age-friendly initiatives, contributes to an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of rural population aging. Featuring five research projects associated with Trent University’s Centre for Aging and Society, this symposium will provide a Canadian perspective on rural aging, with a particular emphasis on rural age-friendly discourses, programming and research approaches. Divided into three themes, the symposium will explore 1) key debates in rural aging discourse, 2) age-friendly communities program development and sustainability, and 3) new ways of researching aging rural communities, including arts and culture, public services, and housing. Discussions of five unique studies will integrate themes of rural aging and the complex ways in which older people, carers, municipalities, and volunteer organizations influence, and are influenced by, individual approaches taken to create supportive environments for people to age at home in rural and remote areas.

Individual Session Abstracts:

Abstract 1: Contested spaces of rural aging: implications for research, policy and practice

Mark Skinner, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada (markskinner@trentu.ca), & Rachel Winterton, Ph.D., La Trobe University, Australia

Informed by a critical turn underway in rural gerontology, this paper explores how the intersection of global and local trends relating to population aging and rural change create contested spaces of rural aging. The aim is to build our understanding of rural as a dynamic context within which the processes, outcomes and experiences of aging are created, confronted and contested by older adults and their communities. A review of key developments within gerontology and rural studies reveals how competing policies, discourses and practices relating to healthy aging and aging in place, rural citizenship and governmentality, and social inclusion and inequality combine in particular ways to empower or disempower a diverse range of older rural adults aging in a diverse range of rural communities. The article provides a contextually-sensitive perspective on potential sources of conflict and exclusion for older adults in dynamic rural spaces and further enhances our understanding of how rural physical and social environments are constructed and experienced in older age. A framework for interrogating emergent questions about aging in rural contexts is developed and implications for advancing research, policy and practice are discussed. Symposium: Aging rural communities: Discourses, policies, practices

Abstract 2: Experts’ perspectives on building sustainable rural age-friendly programming initiatives

Elizabeth Russell, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada (elizabethrussell@trentu.ca), & Mark Skinner, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada

Volunteers are a crucial strength in building age-friendly program capacity, but they are not enough to ensure sustainable implementation. As such, many age-friendly organizations quickly lose momentum, becoming defunct within a few years. In rural communities, these challenges are exacerbated. This presentation will examine results of a community-based, mixed method project that examines current policy approaches taken in age-friendly programming, factors that limit and strengthen programming sustainability, best practices in program implementation, and aims to contribute a theoretical framework to the academic, policy, and community understanding of age-friendly program sustainability. Pilot results, based on key informant interviews with age-friendly program coordinators in Newfoundland and Labrador, indicate that sustainability was inhibited by limited community and financial capacity, specifically an overreliance on volunteers, paired with a lack of long-term funding. Rural communities experienced these barriers more keenly, struggling with limited services and personnel, a spread-out population, overburdened volunteers, and more restricted budgets. Recommendations for age-friendly sustainability will be discussed, including facilitating community capacity development, and solidifying municipal partnerships.

Abstract 3: Connecting rural communities and older people with dementia through dance

Rachel Herron, Ph.D., Brandon University, Brandon, Canada, (herronr@brandonu.ca), Mark Skinner, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada; Rachel Bar, Ph.D. Candidate, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada; Pia Kontos, Ph.D., Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network and University of Toronto; & Verena Menec, Ph.D., University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

People with dementia and their carers experience barriers to meaningful participation and connection across a range of settings. In particular, rural communities face challenges resourcing and sustaining targeted programming for people with dementia who are often few in number and geographically dispersed. In this presentation, we examine the potential of an innovative dance program, Canada’s National Ballet School’s Sharing Dance Program for people with dementia, to enhance opportunities for expression, engagement, and sociability at the community level and across geographic jurisdictions. Drawing on a multi-method study employing observations, diaries, focus groups and interviews we examine the experiences of people with dementia and their carers participating in the program and we assess the effectiveness of delivering such a program in a group setting in Brandon, Manitoba with a live-to-tap program from Toronto, Ontario. Symposium: Aging rural communities: Discourses, policies, practices

Abstract 4: Older voluntarism and rural community sustainability: a case study of a volunteer-based rural library

Amber Colibaba, M.A., Trent University, Canada (ambercolibaba@trentu.ca), & Mark Skinner, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada

With regards to building knowledge about rural aging, there is a gap in understanding of the diversity of older rural people’s experiences and the interaction between older rural people and the development trajectories of aging rural communities. One way to examine these experiences and interactions is through voluntarism; the activities of volunteers and voluntary organizations, which are pivotal for supporting aging in place in often-underserviced rural communities. To address this gap, this thesis features a community-based case study with a volunteer-based rural library in Ontario, Canada and was aimed at understanding the experiences of older library volunteers, examining the challenges of a rural library volunteer program and exploring how they contribute to rural community sustainability. Through surveys (n=87), interviews (n=48) and focus groups (n=6) with library volunteers, staff, board members and community leaders the findings demonstrate how older voluntarism is felt through the lived experiences of individual volunteers, poses interpersonal, operational and structural challenges, and can potentially contribute to the sustainability of rural communities. The thesis contributes to our understanding the complexity of rural aging and provides recommendations for ways to sustain library volunteer programs.

Abstract 5: A community-based approach to retirement living development projects

Kara Rutherford, B.Sc. (Hons.) (kararutherford@trentu.ca), Laurel Pirrie, B.Sc. (Hons)., Amy Smith, B.Sc. (Hons)., Natalie Jennings, B.A. (Hons)., Elizabeth Russell, Ph.D., Trent University, Peterborough, Canada; John Marris, Ph.D., Trent Community Research Centre, Peterborough, Canada; & Dewi Wyn Jones, Abbeyfield House Society of Lakefield, Lakefield, Canada

In an era of population aging, many other rural communities are investigating alternative living accommodations for older adults. Abbeyfield housing, a unique, non-profit, community-based communal-living model that includes private, independent living space geared towards middle income seniors, has been successful in various communities. However, before investing in developing non-profit retirement living complexes, and the social, voluntary-based infrastructure necessary to do so, thoroughly and accurately understanding the local population’s needs and preferences is important in ensuring appropriate and effective retirement housing developments. Focusing on the small rural town of Lakefield, Ontario, this community-based research project examined the needs, preferences and attitudes of older adults and community members towards retirement living, to determine the feasibility of developing an Abbeyfield housing model. Mixed-method research, employing focus groups (n = 19) and an online survey (n = 85), identified themes of affordability, independence and loneliness as the major concerns and preferences of community members and various stakeholders. Implications and recommendations based on these findings for non-profit organizations and for rural communities and small towns interested in developing Abbeyfield or other rural communal retirement housing alternatives will be discussed