Inclusive Communities for Older Immigrants (ICOI) Partnership: Developing multi-level, multi-component interventions to reduce social isolation and promote connectedness among older immigrants in Canada

L’IU SHERPA est partenaire de ce projet.

Team

Principal investigator

Sepali Guruge

Co-investogators

Sandeep Agrawal, Michèle Charpentier, Shirley Chau, Denise Cloutier, Ilyan Ferrer, Amanda Grenier, Balbir Gurm, Jill Hanley, Shawn-Renée Hordyk,Karen Kobayashi, Marie-Emmanuelle Laquerre, Maureen Markle-Reid, Salima Massoui, Jenny Ploeg, Jordana Salma, Bharati Sethi, John Shields, Souraya Sidani, Sonia Ben Soltane, Oona St-Amant, Bouchra Taïbi, Hongmei Tong, Christine Walsh, Zhixi Zhuang

Abstract

Our Inclusive Communities for Older Immigrants (ICOI) partnership will engage in a 7-year multidisciplinary, multi-sector, multi-province project that will build sustainable connections to generate knowledge about social isolation and connectedness among older immigrants, support multidirectional knowledge exchange, and improve older immigrants’ lives. Specifically, it will

1. clarify intersecting factors affecting older immigrants social isolation vis-a-vis their social, economic, and political inclusion/exclusion in urban and suburban settings;
2. contribute to models related to social isolation/connectedness based on empirical data unprecedented in its scope and comprehensiveness;
3. design, implement, and evaluate interventions to promote social connectedness; and
4. develop sustainable knowledge-sharing and research collaborations among key players. Informed by complementary theoretical approaches, ICOI w

ICOI currently includes 48 researchers and 38 community partners in 9 cities in 4 major immigrant-receiving provinces (BC, AB, ON, QC). Partners in each city are committed to improving policy and services for older immigrants; have strong connections with the Punjabi-, Arabic-, and Mandarin-speaking communities we focus on; and bring practice and policy expertise in aging, immigration, aging-in-place, age-friendly cities, capacity-building and resilience, and programs and services. Organizationally, ICOI includes Provincial Teams; Research Streams; Support Committees; an Executive Committee; and an Advisory Council. It will provide opportunities for >150 students and junior academics.