NORCs Everywhere

When I started blogging a while back, my aim was to find people in my neighbourhood who were seniors like myself who live alone in an apartment building.  My interest was two-fold:  to make all of our lives more interesting and fulfilling by creating a network of ‘seniors helping seniors’ and to provide local information about our little village, the kind that might have been available in the past from a local radio station - weather, tides, upcoming events, etc.

I live in a building and a village both of which can be described as a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community or, NORC, for short. Statisticians in Ontario coined this term when they discovered pockets of older adults living within a short radius of each other who were actually aging very successfully in place. Like my neighbours in Ambleside, when people find a place with good amenities and services, they very rarely leave. My next door neighbour who is in his nineties has lived in his suite for over fifty years. 

Then, the University Health Network in Ontario promoted the formation of NORC Committees which is a group of people within a building dedicated to improve the lives of seniors. They have been successful in establishing a network of these groups in Ontario. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find something similar happening in British Columbia. 

My building is a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community as are several others within a few blocks from where I live. My thought was that I could encourage a few people to form a NORC committee within their building, and of couse our building, based on guidelines presented by UHN (University Health Network). 

https://norcambassadors.ca/about/

At the same time, however, I am just discovering the many secrets of successful of blogging in 2023. Due to the high volume of bloggers like me, search engine companies like GOOGLE are overwhelmed with us and have had to set criteria on what becomes searchable. I have also found that I need to engage with social media - facebook, instagram, pinterest, etc., - and to learn about search engine optimization. It may be as much as ninety days before I can expect this blog to become searchable online. The only way to see my blog at present is by knowing my blog address (URL).

While I am waiting for people on the internet either here in Ambleside or from anywhere to find me on a search of keywords like ‘Aging in Place’, ‘Aging in Ambleside’ or ‘NORC’, I have a couple of months to get involved with other social networks and to learn more about blogging in general. In the meantime, I intend to keep blogging and hoping that my small circle of friends and family will help me promote this blog one person at a time. 

As I write this, it occurs to me that this network does not need to be just in my small community, it can be anywhere the internet takes it. NORC committees could be set up and associated with others in all parts of Canada where there are pockets of retirees. Although it would be nice to have a few close enough that we could meet for coffee from time to time.