A Review of Public Sector Engagement in Age-Friendly Community Initiatives

The global age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) movement has centered on the involvement of the public sector, calling on high-ranking authorities to commit to improving the built, social, and service environments of their localities. This interpretive review aimed to advance understanding of the ways in which the public sector is involved in AFCC efforts. Based on emergent themes from peer-reviewed articles from the United States and Canada published since 2010, we derived a two-dimensional framework for conceptualizing variability in public sector involvement, encompassing the internal/external (a) locus of responsibility for cross-sector change and (b) target for cross-sector change. We discuss implications for research, policy, practice, and further knowledge development in AFCC implementation.