What if community placemaking could be a pathway toward dementia-friendly communities?

On September 12, 2026, we brought Voices in Place, a dementia-inclusive community activation, to Maple & W. 4th Plaza in the City of Vancouver.

Our idea was simple: activate a public space through intergenerational activities while using that experience to start conversations about dementia, brain health, inclusion, and what a dementia-friendly community can actually look like.

One of the most meaningful parts of the day was showcasing artwork created by people living with dementia in collaboration with our volunteer artists. Their work is a reminder that dementia does not erase the ability to participate in community life. People living with dementia should continue to have opportunities to be socially and physically present in our communities, and our communities need to be prepared to include them.

We also designed a large, interactive Dementia-Friendly Communities puzzle. Families, young people, older adults, and other community members worked together to assemble it while discussing the different elements that can make a community more supportive and inclusive.

For children and families, we created interactive brain-health activities and stickers to open age-appropriate conversations about dementia.

We also included live music and gentle dance, creating a welcoming atmosphere where people of different ages could participate, connect, and enjoy the space together.

For me, initiatives like this serve two closely connected purposes.

First, they can transform ordinary public spaces into places where people meet, participate, learn from one another, and create meaningful shared experiences.

Second, they provide an opportunity to increase dementia awareness and challenge the stigma surrounding dementia.

A dementia-friendly community cannot exist only through specialized dementia programs. It also depends on our public spaces, social environments, businesses, services, neighbourhoods, and everyday interactions. The goal is a community where more people understand dementia, know how to interact respectfully with people living with dementia, and recognize what inclusion looks like in practice.

I am incredibly proud of our TrueNetwork volunteers, who brought so much creativity, initiative, and care to this event.

We are also deeply grateful to the City of Vancouver Community Placemaking Grant, Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, and especially Braelyn Dillon for their support, as well as the Alzheimer Society of BC and Yukon for providing dementia-awareness resources that we could share with community members.

We would be very happy to bring similar dementia-inclusive community activations to other neighbourhoods and municipalities.

If your municipality, community organization, business, or research team is interested in exploring this work with us, I would be very happy to connect.

More to come.

Website: www.truenetworksociety.ca