We are looking for passionate people who are interested in creating inclusive neighbourhoods alongside your neighbours, local community organizations, businesses, and city staff to make neighbourhoods accessible, comfortable and inclusive. The goal of this project is to bring together leaders in the community to work together to build dementia-inclusive neighbourhoods at all levels – from how shopkeepers and neighbours interact with people living with dementia, to developing community services and programs, improving the built environment (like safety on roads), policy changes and much more. We recognize that not everyone will have experience in the dementia context, and that’s okay. We still welcome you to join and value your input. If you do have experience, that’s great too, and incredibly valuable for our project. We truly value any input and support you can give to make our project’s goals a reality.
There are currently two ways to get involved to help make your community more dementia inclusive.
1) Take a researcher on a tour of your neighbourhood. Click here for more information.
and/or
2) Join your local neighbourhood steering team. Click here for more information.
1) Tour your neighbourhood with a researcher
The purpose of the Dementia Capable Communities project is to identify specific actions that are needed to create dementia-capable communities. We will do this using a method called ‘Participatory Action Research’. Participatory Action Research is a way of doing research that involves participants living with dementia and their communities in all stages of the research. The end goal of the research is to create ‘action’ to bring about change.
We would like to gather specific information about your community by talking to you before and after going on a tour through your neighbourhood. You can also choose to drive instead of walking through the neighbourhood if it is more feasible for you.
For more information, please review this document:
2) Join your local neighbourhood steering team
We are looking for people who are interested in being on a steering team in their neighbourhood. The people on Neighbourhood Steering Teams will help us plan actions and research in their neighbourhood. Our three target neighbourhoods are downtown Kitchener (urban), North-West Waterloo (suburban), and Woolwich (rural). Together, we aim to identify the actions needed to create dementia-inclusive communities in the Region of Waterloo.
No personal or professional experience with dementia required to join – just a willingness to learn!
The Neighbourhood Steering Team will have about 10 to 12 people, which may include:
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For more information, please view this document:
Contact information
If you are interested in participating or would like more information, please contact Sarah Main, Research Coordinator (semain@uwaterloo.ca)
This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance from the University of Waterloo Research Ethics Board (REB43551).