51猎奇入口

By: Dr. Theresa Pauly, Mariana Aigner de Oliveira, Melanie Nichele, Ashley Ghuman, and Hailey Ford

On September 10, 2026, the COPE Co-Create team, led by Dr Theresa Pauly and Dr Atiya Mahmood, hosted The Seniors' Heat Resilience Connect & Learn Event, at the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver. The event brought together a diverse group of attendees with varying professional and personal backgrounds, to think critically about the barriers preventing climate resilience among older adults and co-develop action-oriented ideas to foster their preparedness during extreme heat events. The event also included a range of activities and workshops, World Caf茅 discussions, and a live research-based drama performance.

Among the many attendees were several team members including research assistants who are at different stages of their education and research training. While the event served as a cornerstone for developing a multi-perspective extreme heat climate adaption plan for older adults, it also served as a useful and important educational tool for many of our research trainees. including Mariana Aigner de Oliveira, Melanie Nichele, and Ashley Ghuman, who provide their reflections on the day below. During the event, our research team members were encouraged to not only support the administration aspects of the day, but also engage with community members, learn from the expertise of others, and reflect on how their experiences will impact their future research and work. In addition to our team members, we were also able to seek feedback from other participants, such as those with lived experience. Collectively, research team members and participants indicated not only having learned about how to navigate extreme heat events, but also how collaboration was an important method for creating multi-faceted solutions to complex issues.

Mariana Aigner de Oliveira

As a notetaker at the Seniors鈥� Heat Resilience Co-Create Workshop, I had the opportunity to listen closely to the conversations happening around the room, and what stood out to me most was how much knowledge was already present within the community. Although many community members shared different perspectives and lived experiences, the recurring themes of social connection, accessibility, education, and policy change tied each discussion together. The conversations ranged from practical solutions to heat, such as creating more shade, cooling spaces, and building retrofits, to ideas that strengthen community responsibility, such as concerns about preventing social isolation, addressing language barriers, and building stronger community connections.

At one point in the discussion, topics like education, lived experience, and social connections were separated into different tables to represent each topic. Many, if not all, participants at my table emphasized that these topics cannot be separated when talking about heat resilience; to break down silos and create more effective solutions, these topics need to be discussed together. What stayed with me most from this conversation was the strong sense of community responsibility and the importance of listening to peoples lived experiences; learning directly from the community is essential to understanding problems and finding solutions that make sense for the people they are meant to support.

Melanie Nichele

As a volunteer helping with the Seniors鈥� Heat Resilience experiential sessions, I was given the opportunity to attend two of the interactive learn and connect morning sessions. The presentations I attended focused on neighbourhood-level strategies for heat, however, resilience but differed with regard to their specific focus. The first session looked at urban elements we can change such as increasing neighbourhood street trees or adding solar panels, while the other prioritized strengthening social connections and developing emergency plans with neighbours and others in your local community. As an observer of the sessions, something that stood out to me was the diversity of experiences from the participants. During discussions, participants offered strategies from their own lives and cultures that they鈥檇 like to see be applied within our local context. Hearing these new perspectives made me reflect on how the learning process is a dialogue between the presenter and listeners, with each being able to gain and share knowledge with the other.

Ashley Ghuman

At the COPE Co-Create Workshop, I served as a facilitator, where I guided conversations at my table around issues related to extreme heat and strategies for strengthening heat resilience among older adults. I helped the conversation flow while making sure everyone had the opportunity to share their perspective. I also identified recurring themes and patterns that we could explore further as a group. One of my biggest takeaways was seeing how people from various backgrounds and disciplines approached the same issues in very different ways. With much of my own experience being in academic research, I really valued hearing perspectives from people working in other areas. It was also incredibly inspiring to watch people build on each other鈥檚 ideas and move toward potential solutions while working toward the same goal!

I also found it interesting to see some of the same issues independently come up across different conversations. Hearing similar concerns raised by different people helped make certain gaps and areas for improvement much clearer and allowed for a more concrete starting point for thinking about potential solutions. Overall, I鈥檓 grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in the workshop and connect with so many members from the community. I enjoyed my role as a facilitator, and it is definitely something I would look forward to doing again in the future!

Participant Voices

In our feedback surveys, participants reported their experiences as overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the opportunity to connect with others who share concerns about climate resilience and healthy aging, learn practical strategies and resources, and engage in meaningful discussions about community action. Many attendees valued the interactive format, particularly the workshops, World Caf茅 discussions, and opportunities to exchange ideas with diverse participants including research team members. The drama and lived-experience storytelling were especially impactful, with participants describing these sessions as inspiring, powerful, and effective in raising awareness while centering the voices of older adults. Overall, attendees reported feeling more informed, connected, hopeful, and motivated to take action, with several noting that the event helped them develop concrete plans for supporting climate resilience in their own communities and organizations. As one participant noted, the event provided an opportunity for 鈥渃onnecting with others working on these issues,鈥� while another commented that they were encouraged by 鈥渢he momentum and energy to solve this.鈥� Others described the storytelling component as 鈥渟o impactful to hear stories鈥� and reflected that 鈥済roup talking makes me inspired鈥� and motivated towards community action.

Taken together, these reflections not only highlight the importance of bringing together a wide range of community members and stakeholders when attempting to tackle complex issues, but also the importance of involving research trainees in these types of events. While each research assistant participated in different aspects of the day, their key takeaways were similar including recognition that community members possess expertise and knowledge and should be involved in developing solutions to the problems they experience, as well as recognition that complex problems can be understood from a variety of lenses as to can their solutions. We are so grateful to everyone who attended and helped make the day a success!