A Site Selection Process for Enhanced Programming in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities and Social Housing: An Equity- and Data-Driven Methodology

Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are geographic areas that have come to house a high proportion (≥30%) of older residents. Implementing onsite social programming in NORCs, or other places where older adults are clustered, can support aging in place. As such it is important to be able to identify sites that could benefit. We describe a data and equity-driven process used to select NORC and social housing sites for a program aimed at empowering older adults and strengthening aging in place in Toronto, Canada. We (1) created a data-driven shortlist of buildings with population-level data, (2) prioritized equity by targeting buildings with high health needs and neighbourhood-level diversity, and (3) facilitated building and resident engagement to assess interest and suitability. This process offers a novel and replicable approach for selecting sites for enhanced, place-based programming that can inform site selection for other community-based programming for older adults across diverse contexts.