British Columbia allocates $650,000 towards a new program called Age-Friendly BC

Seniors’ Lending Centre, a team within Home n Work Mortgages Inc., is pleased to announce that the provincial government of British Columbia has allocated $650,000 towards a new program called Age-Friendly BC.  It is designed to assist municipal governments create localities that enable seniors to pursue good health and engagement with their communities.

“An age-friendly community is where older British Columbians are supported to live active, socially-engaged and independent lives,” Premier Christy Clark said.  "We are working with local governments and the UBCM [Union of British Columbia Municipalities, sic] to provide $650,000 in grants and award local efforts to create communities where people of all ages and abilities feel valued and included throughout their life.

"There are a number of studies which indicate that seniors often aren’t active members of their communities.  With almost one-sixth of our provincial population 65 or over, we at Seniors’ Lending Centre applaud the provincial government’s efforts to create inclusive communities for this important demographic.

The Age-friendly BC website outlines the program in it’s entirety, and in particular has a section on establishing senior-friendly businesses.  As independent mortgage brokers serving this demographic, we already include most of the recommendations for an age-friendly business in our day-to-day encounters, such as a focus on making sure that older customers are safe, comfortable and respected.  Patience and clarity are an asset to any business encounter, not just when explaining lines of credit, equity loans and reverse mortgages!  As they correctly point out, a business that is comfortable for older customers will also be comfortable for many other customers, such as people with sight, hearing or mobility or other limitations; or people whose first language is not English.

Creating an Age-friendly Business in B.C. (PDF, 2.2 M) was developed based on input from seniors and small businesses around the province. It includes:

• ideas on how to better serve older customers in terms of safety, comfort, visibility and clarity and respect;
• examples of what other businesses have done to become more age-friendly; and
• an assessment checklist to help determine what steps could be taken to make a business more age-friendly.

Contact Information

Rebecca Awram

Mobile Mortgage Expert

Home n Work Mortgages

(1) 604-614-2382

rebeccaawram@homenwork.com