Background and Purpose
Designing neighbourhoods that encourage physical activity for individuals of all ages and abilities is an important long-term public health strategy. A complex set of factors influence how urban planners design, build and adapt the built environment to increase mobility for community dwelling older adults. As new evidence emerges, effective knowledge transfer and exchange between research and practice is critical to maximize the relevance of community-based health research and to guide evidence-based decision making. Walk in My Shoes was a community based event focused on older adult mobility and the built environment. Hosted by interdisciplinary researchers from the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, Walk in My Shoes provides an illustration of the Centre’s integrated knowledge transfer and exchange strategy. The aims of Walk in My Shoes were to: Build relationships between older adults, researchers, service providers, community groups, urban planners, engineers and media; Facilitate dialogue and public reporting among stakeholders regarding the benefits of developing neighbourhoods that encourage physical and social activity; Learn directly from older adults what features of their neighbourhood help or hinder physical activity and social engagement; Create a summary report; distribute to relevant stakeholders e.g. West End Senior’s Network, City of Vancouver and Canadian Institute of Planners.

Description
The setting for Walk in My Shoes was Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood, centred in a gathering and resource centre for older adults. The approximately 40 individuals who attended were: older adults from the neighbourhood, community organizations, city staff, researchers and international, national and local media. The half day event included; i) short presentations delivered by select stakeholders and researchers, ii) small group walking tours (facilitated by researchers) to assess the neighbourhood using a street audit tool, iii) a debriefing group discussion and, iv) a media blitz. The highly active and interactive event prompted a mix of formal and informal dialogue.A key element of researchers’ knowledge transfer and exchange strategy was to develop and implement a customized street audit tool.  The audit tool was designed with input from the City, community consultations, and previous research. It served to guide conversation informally during the tour and formally during the debrief session. Using the audit tool, we collected information on physical and perceived neighbourhood features. These include: feelings of safety and belonging, proximity to amenities, the presences of benches, sidewalks and parks. Data were later synthesized into a summary report for broad stakeholder distribution to assist communities in developing policy and planning for the aging demographic.

Lessons Learned
Five key lessons were generated from the planning and execution of Walk in My Shoes:

1. Engage stakeholders in the early stages of event planning.  Early participation promoted substantive relationship building and increased the potential for integration of information across sectors.
2. Older adults value the opportunity to talk about their experiences. This was true across partners (researchers, planners, and media); however, older adults’ expectations regarding potential outcomes need to be managed.
3. Act local, but project global. A thoughtful press release and strategic timing garnered extensive coverage from local, national and international media. Thus, Walk in My Shoes raised awareness regarding how inter-sectorial partnerships can effectively address mobility issues that confront community dwelling older adults.
4. Knowledge transfer and exchange strategies demand time and resources.
5. A skilled knowledge broker dedicated to effective knowledge transfer and exchange is a necessary asset.

Conclusions and Implications
Lessons learned from hosting Walk in My Shoes will guide knowledge translation and exchange activities in the future. The monetary and human resource costs required to organize the event were offset by the clear and substantial value of the event to all participants. Relationships formed during Walk in My Shoes laid a solid foundation of communication and trust; they also shaped the design of subsequent projects (e.g. Active Streets, Active People, a research study involving 200 older adults in the West End, developed with input from the West End Seniors Network and the City of Vancouver). One welcome consequence of this event was the opportunity to promote relevant research to practitioners and policy makers (e.g. at the high profile City of Vancouver Healthy People, Healthy City event). Finally, Walk in My Shoes created the rare opportunity for city staff and older adults to walk together along city streets. Thus, city staff and researchers experienced first hand, the challenges that older adults face in their communities and took collective steps toward finding solutions.

Next Steps
CHHM continues to build on the relationships established during Walk in My Shoes. Researchers are in regular consultation with the City as they incorporate information from the report to implement policy and changes to the built environment. Additionally, future CHHM research will assess how these specific changes impact the health and mobility of older adults in the West End. Finally, we will take the ‘lessons-learned’ into account as we develop future knowledge translation and exchange activities.

Support / Funding Source
This project recevied support and funding from: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Peter Wall Solutions Initiative, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.