The Legacy Lab: Discovering Your Story & Strengths – Resource Collection

As part of the 2026 Healthy Aging Alberta Regional Gatherings, we were excited to introduce and facilitate the Legacy Lab for the first time with communities across the province. This interactive, strengths-based workshop was designed to spark meaningful connections, deepen understanding of one another’s stories, and highlight the gifts, talents, and lived experiences that older adults and community members bring to the places they call home.

Grounded in an asset-based community development (ABCD) approach, the Legacy Lab shifts the focus from needs to strengths—supporting communities through relationships, contributions, and everyday connections. The workshop also connects these individual strengths to the Determinants of Healthy Aging, reinforcing how people, place, and community conditions shape wellbeing.

This collection of materials—including the facilitator guide, presentation slides, and reflection handouts such as the Determinants of Healthy Aging Wheel and self-reflection tools on talents, passions, and knowledge —is being shared as a follow-up to the regional gatherings. These resources are intended to support participants in bringing the Legacy Lab back to their own organizations, teams, and communities.

Whether used in staff settings, with older adults, or in broader community conversations, the Legacy Lab offers a flexible, “train-the-trainer” approach to:

• Build authentic relationships and social connections
• Surface community strengths and local assets
• Inspire small, meaningful actions rooted in people’s passions
• Shift the narrative of aging toward contribution, leadership, and possibility

We invite you to explore, adapt, and use these materials in ways that fit your local context. At its core, the Legacy Lab is about creating space—for stories, for connection, and for recognizing that everyone has something valuable to contribute to healthy aging in community.

To view and download our 2026 Regional Gathering Reports, visit this link.