Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council endorsed the new Oxford Age Friendly Strategy during its regular Council meeting on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
Meagan Litchi, chair of the Oxford Age Friendly Steering Committee, stopped by the meeting to share more about the work that has been done over the past year to create the strategy.
Litchi said that several partners within Oxford County were involved in the project including some from Southwestern Public Health, Ingersoll Services for Seniors, Tillsonburg and District Multi Service Centre, Oxford Ontario Health Team, Alzheimer Society Southwest Partners, the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), community members and more.
“You’ll see that we’ve had many partners across the County that have been involved with shaping the strategy,” she said. “We plan to continue to explore partnerships and collaboration opportunities over the next few years as we continue to take the strategy out to the community.”
Litchi went on to say that the strategy to become an age-friendly community was created with Oxford’s aging population in mind.
“Our rates of adults who are 65-plus are continuing to grow. We’re also seeing an increase in seniors living with a low income; it’s moved from 18 per cent in 2016 to 25 per cent in 2021 and we do expect that number to continue to grow when we get new census data in 2026,” she said. “We also have some of the highest fall rates in the province when we look at emergency department visits and admissions to hospitals that are related to falls. So, age-friendly communities work to improve the needs for this population, but they also support the many strengths that the life experience and knowledge that our older adults bring as a benefit to the community.”
Litchi explained that in order to develop the strategy, the steering committee first created a community needs assessment.
“This included data from 402 survey responses,” she shared. “We had ten different focus groups and eight one-on-one interviews with caregivers of anyone that was providing unpaid care to residents that were 50 years of age or older. This was analyzed with support from Southwestern Public Health, and then our results were themed into these five domain areas.”
The chair went on to present recommendations for each of the following areas, including:
Transportation
- Explore innovative transportation solutions while prioritizing affordability and accessibility, particularly in rural areas.
- Increase awareness and education about existing options for transportation.
- Expand and support volunteer driver programs, and;
- Strengthen coordination between local transportation providers.
Healthcare
- Increase awareness for community support and services, focusing on rural areas, low-income older adults, and caregivers.
- Explore ways to reinstate local memory clinics and cognitive assessment services to strengthen early identification and support cognitive health.
- Create coordinated access for specialized intracollaborative geriatric services.
Housing
- Increase awareness and education of housing options and aging in place considerations.
- Explore and promote alternative living arrangements.
Social inclusion and participation
- Reduce ageism through education, policy recommendations, and by promoting intergenerational opportunities.
- Prioritize equity, accessibility, and inclusion‑based approaches to addressing social isolation and loneliness, with particular attention to rural communities and low‑income older adults.
- Raise public and health provider awareness about the risks of social isolation and loneliness.
- Reduce isolation through thoughtful technology solutions paired with digital literacy training and affordable access to devices and internet services.
Outdoor spaces and buildings
- Increase awareness of the benefits of age and dementia friendly design and increase collaboration with community partners to align recommendations for community design.
- Identify opportunities to improve maintenance and accessibility of sidewalks and walkways, with particular attention to neighbourhoods with higher proportions of low‑income older adults.
- Explore the possibility of local developer incentive programs to promote age and dementia friendly housing and community design.
Litchi continued, saying that that new age-friendly strategy will continue to evolve and the steering committee will continue to support its implementation.
The committee chair also said that a roadshow is being planned for each of Oxford County’s eight municipalities, noting that the first will be in Plattsville on June 15. Details about where and when the event will be released soon.
Litchi then asked that the Council endorse, and share the strategy.
Council members went on to compliment the work that has been done and later endorsed the Oxford Age-Friendly Strategy.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
