How Neighbourly Connections Can Help Us “Age in the Right Place”

Building Resilient Neighbourhood’s (BRN’s) Neighbours Helping Neighbours (NHN) pilot—done in collaboration with  Hey Neighbour Collective and ten delivery partners—brought residents of multi-unit housing together to learn about and nurture intergenerational neighbourly support. A key learning question was: Can a culture of mutual support be established among neighbours that will help people, especially older adults, age in their own homes or “in the right place”?

The answer from the pilot: A resounding “yes”!

NHN activities ranged from lobby intercepts, surveys, and workshops where residents discussed how to help each other, to resident-led projects setting up systems to help each other on a day-to-day basis or during times of illness or emergencies.

Across all of the activities, it became clear that strengthened social connections—especially alongside growing familiarity and trust—helped create the foundations for residents to ask for, give, and receive help.

In addition, as residents became more connected with each other and with delivery partner organizations, these residents also became more connected to other community services, supports, and resources that could help them age in place.

And while some residents initially had reservations and concerns about asking for or offering help, these resistances were lowered as they openly discussed and became more comfortable with each others’ needs, and established a shared sense of appropriate boundaries.

Finally, when neighbours collaborated to set up any kind of simple system or structure to facilitate mutual assistance—such as an emergency preparedness plan or an ask/offer bulletin board—this helped establish and normalize a culture of helping among one another and across their entire building.

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