Durango, ciudad amigable con las personas mayores / Durango, Age-Friendy City

Background

Name of your initiative:

Short name (acronym):

Website title and address:

Durango, Age Friendly City

Which organization is submitting this initiative?:

University of Deusto

Please specify in which regions/provinces:

ESPAÑA›NORESTE›País Vasco›Vizcaya

City:

Durango

Where is this organization located?:

Spain

Please enter the name of the contact person for this initiative:

Pedro Ferández de Larrinoa

Please enter the email of the contact for this initiative:

pedro.larrinoa@deusto.es

Part of larger strategy or programme:

Regional

If you answered "other", please specify:

Please provide us with more details of this programme or strategy:

The city of Durango (Biscay, Basque Country) has recently become the second municipality in Biscay (Bilbao was the first) to join the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities. The initiative coordinated by the WHO aims at helping cities and communities to become age-friendly by looking at eight dimensions: housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, community support and health services, communication and information, civic participation and employment, respect and social inclusion, and social participation. The Durango, age-friendly city initiative started two years ago with the collaboration of one research team of the University of Deusto, Ageing Research, which undertook an action-research project aimed at empowering the older population of the municipality to engage in a participatory process to examine how friendly the locality is towards senior citizens, and to identify the areas and opportunities for improvement. Together with the Social Action Area of the municipality, and a leading group of seniors, the University of Deusto helped organize a diagnostic study in which senior citizens themselves identified the elements in their environment that enable and contribute to an active and healthy ageing process. The people involved in the project are currently working on and Action Plan for improvements to be carried out in the next three years. For further information please follow the

The status of the initiative:

On-going

Please give a summary of your initiative (in English):

they may engage in participatory proccesses that examine how fiendly their municipality is towards seniors in terms of housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, community support and health services, communication and information, civic participation and employment, respect and social inclusion, and social participation. The project has accomplished a thorough and participatory diagnostic study of the factors that enable and contribute towards active and healthy ageing processes, and has identify areas that need improvement. These areas have been included in an action plan that will be carried out in the next three years. The University is interested in finding out to what extent the participants in this process benefit form takin part in it in terms of wellbeing, and a sense of community. The municipality of Durango has recently joined the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities.

The geographical scope:

Local

Type of initiative:

Public-private-partnership

Environment or setting of the initiative:

Urban

The economic environment or setting of the initiative:

Moderate

The most important source of funding for your initiative:

Local funding

If other, please specify your source of funding:

What triggered this initiative?:

Deusto's Ageing Research Team. Their work in close contact with international and local stakeholders allowed to initiate the idea of the project in several municipalities of Biscay, and to engage policy makers, local and regional authorities, civil society organisation and senior citizens. The Durango project is a good example of multi-stakeholder coordination in whcih politicians, academics, technical practitioners, and the community work together.

Objectives

What are the main objectives of your initiative? Choose a maximum of 3 objectives.:

Social participation: increase the number of older people who are socially activeRespect and social inclusion: increase in number of policies/strategies targeted at older peopleCivic participation: increase in possibilities for active civic participation of older people

Please describe any subgoals of your initiative:

To establish a Local Council of Seniors To promote intergenerational spaces and activities To remove barriers and promote volunteering opportunities

Target group

Does your initiative target people with a specific impairment or disease?:

No. It includes all people regardless of functional abilities

How many people have you reached or do you expect to reach with your initiative?:

10.000 - 100.000

Does your initiative target a specific age group?:

< 1818 - 4950 - 6465 - 7980+

Does your initiative target men or women?:

Approach

Please indicate what best describes your initiative:

PolicyResearch›Innovation/action/applied

What type of intervention strategy is used in your initiative?:

AdvocacyUser-empowerment and participation

Please indicate the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your initiative:

Not applicable

Who executes the initiative:

Citizen's initiativeProvider of social serviceResearch/educational setting

What is the relevant physical scale of your initiative?:

City/municipalityNeighbourhood›Care settingNeighbourhood›Public spaceNeighbourhood›Residential settingRegional level

Please indicate how you think your initiative could be scaled up (made to reach more people):

The WHO methodology for Age-Friendly Environemnts contains clear guidelines as to how to proceed; however, we believe that one of our project's main chracteristic can de scaled up: cross-sectoral cooperation. The articulation of the public and private sectors, and the efforts joined with academics and civil society has derived in a sustainable process that has empowwered seniors to carry on with the process and to participate more actively in the life of their community

Please indicate the type of stakeholders concerned with your initiative.:

Non-governmental organisation

Please describe how you think your initiative could be transferred to other regions or contexts:

By means of systematizing this particular experince, which is being done and collected in a book and manual soon to be published

Is your initiative economically sustainable and does it contribute to economic development?:

Both

If you selected "other" neighbourhood, please specify::

Impact & outcome

Will you collect or have you collected outcome data for this initiative?:

Yes

What do you consider the key success factors of your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the key success factors to be:

One key factor for success was the implication and collaboration of different sectors; namely, the academic, social, private and public sectors.

What do you consider the main barriers to overcome in your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the main barriers to be.:

Sustaining interest among the involved stakeholders has proven to be difficult. Keeping the initiative "apolitical" has been a challange due tio the interest this project raises. Another challenge is going betond the sole "diplomma" of being a WHO age-fiendly city.

What instruments will you use/have used to collect data?:

Other, namely

If you selected "other" instrument to collect data, please specify:

If yes, how will you/have you collected those data?:

Cross-sectionalQualitative evaluation

Will you collect or have collected socio-economic impact data for this initiative?:

Yes

Will or are the collected data in the initiative publicly available?:

Yes