Building and Sustaining Aging in Place Through the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) Ambassadors Program

Abstract

Older adults overwhelmingly want to continue to age in place but would benefit from a community of support to do so. The Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) Ambassadors program - an initiative from University Health Network (UHN) OpenLab - uses a participatory approach to create sustainable, resident-led, aging-in-place groups in NORC buildings. NORC, which stands for Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, is a geographic designation used to describe an area, such as a building or a neighbourhood that has become home to a large number of older adults. Having a high concentration of older adults, NORCs are ideal settings for mobilizing communities and developing supportive networks. This article describes the creation and evaluation of the NORC Ambassadors program, which led to its inclusion as a foundational element of the model being implemented through the newly founded NORC Innovation Centre at the UHN.