Community Engagement in Different National Contexts: Building Bridges and Age-Friendly Environments

Friday, November 15, 2024

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST

Location: Room 3A

CE: 1.5

Chair(s)

Oskar Jonsson, PhD (he/him/his)

Assistant Researcher
Department of Health Sciences
Lund University
Lund, Skane Lan, Sweden

Co-Chair(s)

Peggy Chi, PhD, MLA, BArch, OALA, CSLA (she/her/hers)

Post-doctoral Fellow
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Discussant(s)

Ian Johnson, PhD, LCSW (he/they)

Assistant Professor
Social Work
University of Texas- San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas, United States

Individual Symposium Abstract First Author(s)

Oskar Jonsson, PhD (he/him/his)

Assistant Researcher
Department of Health Sciences
Lund University
Lund, Skane Lan, Sweden
TP

Tam Perry, PhD, FGSA (she/her/hers)

Professor
School of Social Work
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Peggy Chi, PhD, MLA, BArch, OALA, CSLA (she/her/hers)

Post-doctoral Fellow
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mikiko Terashima, PhD (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
School of Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Planning
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

To bridge the gap between research and practice, initiatives to facilitate knowledge mobilization in tandem with community engagement have become increasingly important. This symposium will advance the understanding about knowledge mobilization processes and community engagement efforts by offering insight from scholars from established research centers with long-standing community engagement as well as new initiatives connecting disparate disciplines and sectors. Representing different national contexts, the speakers will share their experiences regarding the complexities of partnership and engagement approaches, processes, and activities. Benefits (research quality, relevance, utilization, transgressing boundaries, addressing complex problems) as well as barriers (diverse conditions/cultures, lack of time/resources, multiple levels of terminology, hard-to-reach groups, projectification, boundaries of traditional science systems) will be addressed. The first speaker will describe the development and establishment of a pool of interested parties in Sweden to systematize and facilitate communication, entryways to research studies, and user involvement in aging research. The second speaker will describe the work of a center serving older African Americans from Detroit, Michigan, including innovative leadership opportunities created for its members. The third speaker will describe new initiatives in the Canadian context that purposefully choreograph knowledge mobilization activities to disrupt disciplinary and industry silos in the practice and research of salutogenic/healthy long-term care environments. The last speaker will describe an engagement effort towards age-friendly infrastructures in rural municipalities in Canada. Finally, discussant Ian Johnson from the University of Texas San Antonio will identify, compare, and discuss underlying themes, commonalities, differences, and lessons learned generated from the presentations.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this session, attendees will be able to identify the benefits, facilitators and barriers in community engagement and knowledge mobilization to communicate aging research in academic and non-academic settings, and to prepare scholars interested in building bridges with individuals and groups within the civil society, business, and public authorities.
After attending this session, attendees will be able to describe successful pathways relating to strategies, approaches, and best practices in engaging with individuals and groups within academic and non-academic communities through passion, commitment, and fortitude.
After attending this session, attendees will be able to exchange insight, experiences, and expertise, from different national contexts, to advance the science of engaged gerontology within networks of scholars interested in forward-looking and comprehensive community engagement and knowledge mobilization initiatives.

Presentations:

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST

A Pool of Interested Parties: Communication, Entryways, and User Involvement in Aging Research in a Swedish Context
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Oskar Jonsson, PhD (he/him/his) – Lund University
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST

Leaders and Consultants From an Aging Center in Michigan: Productive and Tailored Engagement With African Americans
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Tam E. Perry, PhD, FGSA (she/her/hers) – Wayne State University
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST

Building Community in Practice and Research of Healthy Long-Term Care Environments
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Peggy Chi, PhD, MLA, BArch, OALA, CSLA (she/her/hers) – University of Toronto
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST

Mobilizing Untapped Lived Expertise to Assess Accessible and Age-Friendly Infrastructures
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Mikiko Terashima, PhD (she/her/hers) – Dalhousie University