Dr. Jennifer Jakobi, an Investigator with the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging and Professor at UBC Okanagan, was the recipient of a 2023 Convening and Collaborating award jointly funded by Michael Smith Health Research BC and the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging for her project titled “Aging in Place: A Perspective from Indigenous Older Adults and Elders”. These awards aim to facilitate meaningful collaboration between researchers and research users to address health-related issues in British Columbia. The engagement with research users ensures project relevance and promotes knowledge translation and skills development within BC health research. These initiatives also highlight a commitment to collaborative, community-based research that address pressing health issues in the region.
The project led by Dr. Jakobi will explore aging in place among Indigenous older adults. Collaborating with Indigenous communities, her team will modify a survey to capture the voices of different nations and develop reports jointly with Indigenous communities. This project seeks to share this information through knowledge-exchange events with government, Indigenous leaders, and policy makers at provincial and federal levels, ultimately shaping policies and practices to support aging in place for Indigenous communities.