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About Healthy Aging Alberta

Who are We? 


Healthy Aging Alberta (HAA) focuses on developing a coordinated sector in Alberta by bringing together community-based organizations around a common framework for action, with a focus on identifying and addressing priority areas related to healthy aging in the community. Healthy Aging Alberta is a rich network of community-based senior serving organizations and allies across our province united by a shared vision: to make Alberta one of the best places in the world to grow older.


As individual organizations, our capacity for influence is limited to the lives we directly touch. By building a structure and framework that connects our organizations, we can touch the lives of all Albertans. We can advocate for healthy aging on a provincial level, share knowledge, and create functional relationships with one another and our allies in this sector. We can create the infrastructure that connects us to increase our collective impact. We can empower, support, and inspire older adults to age on their terms while improving health and social outcomes.


Healthy Aging Alberta seeks to enhance the lives of older Albertans by uniting the organizations that serve them. This work is being done for the community, by the community.



Information about HAA Programmatic Initiatives:



Leadership

This provincial initiative is being led by a Community Leadership Council (CLC), who support and lead a provincially coordinated response.

United Way of Calgary and Area was named the backbone organization to support this work. Healthy Aging Alberta is proud to have a robust staff and Regional Community Developers (RCDs) to connect with you and support your work as a Community-Based Senior Serving Organization!


Connect with us!

  1. Email us to connect with your Regional Community Developer- RCD! info @ healthyagingalberta.ca [NO SPACES].
  2. Follow us on Linked In!
  3. Subscribe on YouTube to get regular content updates like CORE Event recordings!
  4. Sign up for our Newsletter to get sector updates, news, funding, events, and resources every second week or updates about Healthy Aging Alberta every quarter
  5. Update your information on our Systems Map!
  6. Connect with us to learn more about our Healthy Aging Framework and Healthy Aging Framework Primer! View the overlaps of a Recovery Oriented System of Care (RSC) and the HAF here.



Healthy Aging CORE Alberta

CORE stands for Collaborative Online Resources and Education. This site is an initiative of Healthy Aging Alberta. It is a free member-based digital knowledge and learning hub designed to support this work of coordination and strengthening of the sector by connecting CBSS organizations and their allied partners and providing a digital space to share knowledge and capacity-building opportunities and collaborate with others on common issues or aligned priorities.

CORE is designed to provide up-to-date information, resources, and training opportunities and make communicating, coordinating, and collaborating easier to build capacity, strengthen the network, and develop a collective and cohesive voice among volunteers, staff, and others who support healthy aging initiatives. CORE is primarily a network and sector-building tool aimed at supporting the vision of this provincial initiative. With support from the United Way, the Ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services, Alberta Blue Cross, Alberta Health Services and the Government of Canada, CORE Alberta was launched on May 10, 2020.


  1. CORE short information video
  2. Join our next CORE 101 session to learn about how to use the platform
  3. Watch our previous CORE 101 sessions to learn about how to use the platform
  4. Sign up for our CORE Newsletter to get sector updates, news, funding, events, and resources every second week
  5. Join a CORE group to connect with others on key issues!
  6. Check out CORE BC and CORE National for other content!


Healthy Aging Alberta Origin Story

The population of seniors in Canada continues to grow faster than any other age group and older adults overwhelmingly express a desire to stay in their own homes as they age. However, they are often unable to do so due to a lack of reliable, accessible, and coordinated non-medical support services. These non-medical supports, such as home, social, and financial supports, are offered less consistently across Alberta than medical supports through the healthcare system.


There are thousands of incredible community-based organizations, each offering critical services that support healthy aging. The lack of provincial coordination and working in isolated clusters have left us without a unified voice. Our collective presence is required at every table where decisions affecting older Albertans are made. Our ability to serve older adults comes from the strength of our connections to each other.


Systems partners such as Alberta Health Services and the Ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services, have expressed how important CBSS organizations have been to understand what is happening on the ground in the community in order to tailor responses to specific challenges in specific regions of the province, especially during the pandemic.

In 2019, a group of seniors-serving community organizations, in partnership with the Ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services, recognized these challenges and decided to jointly explore potential approaches to change the system and ensure that the community-based seniors serving sector is seen in the larger ecosystems as unified, with unique expertise, and playing a critical role in Albertans aging in the way they want.

The concept of sector development and what is possible in Alberta was inspired by the success of the Healthy Aging Model in BC through the work of the United Way of the Lower Mainland, which has been in development over the past decade. According to the BC Ministry of Health, they have seen a decrease in the number of seniors admitted to hospital. They attributed this to the high level of integrated community-based care achieved through sector development and coordination efforts of the initiative. 

The Community-Based Seniors Serving (CBSS) Sector Engagement Project was undertaken by Age Friendly Calgary, carya, Edmonton Seniors Coordinating Council and Sage Seniors Association with support from the Ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services, and it involved twenty-six conversations with CBSS organizations across the province as a first step to building an “Alberta made” CBSS sector. These conversations were held in sixteen communities across Alberta with 187 individuals. These consultations indicated that there was a strong interest in developing a CBSS sector in Alberta.

The resulting “What We Heard” document presents an overview of the perspectives and themes emerging from these conversations. It proposes some next steps for the development of a CBSS sector in Alberta.

The strategic objectives of the initiative are:


  1. Establish and coordinate the CBSS Sector
  2. Provide a provincially coordinated learning and collaboration network
  3. Address unmet needs through a community development approach
  4. Advocate for appropriate and coordinated investment in the CBSS Sector

Thank you to our funding partners for supporting this initiative!