A number of things related to Age-Friendly Communities have been going on in Saskatchewan. For example:

• Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM) is working on a Creating Age- Friendly/Elder Abuse Free Communities project aimed at working with communities and creating Saskatchewan specific resources to encourage Age- Friendly in Saskatchewan. Creating communities that are safer, smarter, healthier, happier, more inclusive places for all people also reduces one of the significant factors that contributes to elder abuse – isolation. Age-friendly communities are places where everyone is respected and valued and therefore are places where elder abuse is less likely to happen. Our project focusses on rural, small urban and Aboriginal Communities.

• In Saskatoon, Saskatoon Council on Aging (SCOA) has taken the lead in bringing stakeholders together to work on Age-Friendly Saskatoon.
• In Regina, the Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC) and Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) have been working on various Age-Friendly initiatives.
• The Fédération des aînés Fransaskois (FAF) is working on Age-Friendly initiatives in Saskatchewan’s francophone communities.

With these and other related projects and research happening around the province, this seemed like the opportune time to launch Age-Friendly Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM) is taking the lead in this initiative. SSM has held meetings with SUMA, SARM, SCOA, LLC, FAF, RQHR and Community Care Branch of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health to discuss ways to make Age-Friendly Saskatchewan a reality.