StFX Rural Age-Friendly University

StFX Rural Age-Friendly University

Rural Universities and Age-Friendly Futures

StFX is in the Town of Antigonish and serves as a knowledge and resource hub for rural Northeastern Nova Scotia. Older adults play a valuable and essential role in sustaining and supporting local communities in the region and make a significant contribution to university life and culture. 

The StFX Rural Age-Friendly University Working Group is a multidisciplinary collaborative that explores how universities can support rural communities and older adults. The goal is to develop a plan to make StFX an Age Friendly University using a place-based participatory approach that assesses StFX University’s alignment with the 10 principles of Age Friendly Universities to create more inclusive, accessible, and connected learning and community environments in Northeastern Nova Scotia. As part of this work we also consider how rurality shapes the kinds of contributions that universities can make to support older adults in local communities. As part of this work, the group is also exploring how to bring aging into accessibility efforts so they better support people aging with and into disability.

Project Lead: StFX Age Friendly Working Group (Current core members: Dane Kane, Erin Mazerolle, Laura Estill, Derrick Lee, Erin Austen, Adam Perry, Katie Aubrecht, Megan MacGillivray, Ann Bigelow)

Acknowledgement: StFX Rural Age-Friendly University is supported by funding from the Province of Nova Scotia through an Age Friendly Community Planning Grant, the Spatializing Care: Intersectional Disability Studies Lab, and St. Francis Xavier University.