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Older Canadians on the move
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Article: Older Canadians on the move (PDF)
Objectives
- To identify the elements of a neighbourhood.
- To identify the services needed by people of different ages.
- To understand how demography affects the economic well-being of the community.
Method
- Ask the students to build a profile of the neighbourhood around the school (define the boundaries clearly). As they walk around the area chosen, ask them to record such things as the number and type of retail stores (e.g. grocery, hardware, and clothing stores); housing (e.g. single family homes, apartment buildings); businesses (e.g. architects, plumbers); educational institutions; community services (e.g. fire stations, health care professionals); churches; transportation services (e.g. bus routes, parking lots, bike paths).
- Based on the characteristics observed, what kind of neighbourhood is it? That is, are most of the residents families with teenagers, families with pre-schoolers, older couples, young singles, or a mix of different types of families and individuals.
- Read "Older Canadians on the Move." Assume that 300 people, mostly seniors, arrive in the neighbourhood in the next 6 months. How might this change the neighbourhood? For example, would an old mansion be converted into a seniors' residence, a new gardening store open, the hardware store sell more adaptive aids like grab-bars for shower stalls, a dentist or General Practitioner open a new practice? Would the changes be different than those that followed the arrival of young families?
- Assume that another 300 people, mostly young families, move into the neighbourhood in the next year. How might the neighbourhood change? For example, would portable classrooms be put up around the elementary school, children's shoe store open, more teenagers be hired to work in the local stores, traffic calming measures be introduced in the streets?
- Assume that instead of an influx of new residents, 300 people leave the neighbourhood. Which elements of the neighbourhood would be the first to change?
Using other resources
- Use E-STAT to develop a social and economic profile of a town. Identify the differences between its current conditions and those prevailing 5 or 10 years ago, in terms of employment levels, main industries, age and education of population, and so on.
- Read Report on the Demographic Situation in Canada, 1996, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 91-209-XPE, to see how fertility rates differ in common-law relationships and legal marriages.
- Use the Census data available on the Statistics Canada website at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/.
Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.
