Project status: Closed

Home

How you had YourSay:

To capture the views of senior Canberrans, the Age Friendly City Survey was run over March and April 2018. During the consultation, 768 community members took the survey, one third of responses were online, and two thirds were received in hard copy. 80% of those who responded were over the age of 60, and 47% were over the age of 70.

Hard copy surveys were delivered to key community locations and were available at Senior’s Week events, and available online.

The design of the survey was built on the priorities identified by the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing:

  • Safe and secure housing;
  • Access to information; and
  • Being valued as wise and energetic.

A snapshot of key insights from your comments, feedback, and ideas can be found in the What We Heard report.

Your feedback fed into the development of the Age-Friendly Canberra - A Vision for Our City, launched in 2019, and the Age-Friendly City Plan 2020-2024, which launched in May 2020.

We looked at:

We’re getting ready for a city which will be home to 500,000 people by 2030. We’re growing rapidly with 7,000 new Canberrans and 5,800 reaching seniority every year.

We have more senior Canberrans now than at any other time in our history. Canberra is one of the best places to become a senior Australian – senior Canberrans are more likely to volunteer, stay employed and connected, socialise and remain active than senior Australians in other cities.

From 2016 to 2018, the ACT Active Ageing Framework has set the priorities for our work to promote Canberra as an age friendly city. As this Framework was finalised we wanted to hear from senior Canberrans about what makes Canberra age friendly, and what is needed to ensure that as our city expands, Canberra continues to develop as an age friendly city – a city Canberrans are proud to call home, no matter what their age may be.

Your views are being used to:

The results of the Age Friendly City Survey have provided us with information on key areas for further exploration and areas to address as the next stages of our work on supporting the continued development of Canberra as an age friendly city progresses.

The views expressed by senior Canberrans also informed the development of an Age Friendly Statement of Commitment, Age-Friendly Canberra - A Vision for Our City.

Age Friendly Initiatives

Since 2010 the ACT Government, with input from the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing, has been actively driving better support, connections and initiatives for senior Canberrans. Here are some of the highlights:

Consultation

  • 2000 Canberrans participated in the Age Friendly City Survey in 2011
  • There were two Older Persons Assemblies
  • We hosted the inaugural Australian Age-friendly Cities and Communities Conference in 2013

Information

Transport

Housing

  • Design, development and tenanting of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander older persons housing establishment

Planning

  • Age friendly suburbs upgrades for crossing, footpaths and bus stops in Ainslie, Weston, Monash and Kaleen, with Hughes and Page to come
  • Active living principles incorporated into the Territory Plan guiding future suburb design like amounts and style of seating, paths, access points and lighting

Funding

  • ACT Seniors Grants support Senior Canberrans to remain active and connected to their community. They include digital literary, connecting multicultural community members and raising awareness of elder abuse