Ep. 2 Starting with Strength: Rethinking Rural Aging

When we talk about growing older in rural communities, the conversation often begins with what's missing—transportation, healthcare, and limited services. Those challenges are real. But what if we started somewhere else?

In this episode, we visit the Centre of Rural Aging and Health (CORAH) in Middleton, Nova Scotia—one of three innovative CORAH community hubs engaging older adults living in rural communities across the province. Created through a partnership between local communities, the Nova Scotia Community College network, the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors and Long-term Care, staff, volunteers, and older adults themselves, CORAH is reimagining rural aging by building on the strengths already present in rural communities.

Through conversations with Annapolis Valley Campus CORAH Project Coordinator Jennifer Wesman and some older adults who gather there, we explore a model rooted in belonging, lifelong learning, meaningful relationships, and the dynamic contributions of older adults. Rather than asking what older adults need, CORAH begins by asking what they have to offer—and invites them to help shape the programs, relationships, and community around them.

Links & Resources

Find out more about CORAH's great work at:

https://www.nscc.ca/landing/corah/index.asp

Credits

• Host: Kelly O’Neil, Nova Scotia Centre on Aging
• Guests: Jennifer Wesman, Middleton CORAH Project Coordinator and the good people at CORAH Annapolis Valley Campus 
• Keelan Black, recording and production engineer at Mount Saint Vincent University
• Theme music: "Family Tree" by Danny Duberstein. Licensed through NeoSounds and used with permission. 
• Bridge Music: Evolution by Pumpupthemind. Under open license through Pixabay.

This podcast series was made possible through a generous grant from the Entente Foundation, supporting innovative projects that improve the lives of older adults.

agereconsidered.ca         agereconsidered@msvu.ca

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

0:00 | Rethinking Rural Aging – Looking beyond barriers to the strengths, relationships, and connections found in rural communities.

2:35 | Introducing CORAH – Jennifer Wesman on how a rural aging hub grew from a pilot project into a thriving community resource.

5:54 | More Than a Program – How CORAH’s hub model gives older adults a voice in shaping programs and building community.

8:08 | A Day at CORAH – An online safety session, rug hooking, line dancing, and the welcoming atmosphere firsthand.

9:06 | What Community Means – Older adults reflect on rural life, neighbourliness, belonging, friendship, and being known.

13:00 | Acceptance, Confidence, and Belonging – CORAH members describe a place where they feel heard, valued, and free to be themselves.

19:06 | Bringing Generations Together – How CORAH’s community-college setting creates opportunities for older and younger people to learn from one another.

24:08 | Changing the Story of Aging – Older adults challenge stereotypes about retirement, frailty, technology, learning, and contribution.

27:31 | The Strengths of Rural Aging – Jennifer reflects on connection, vibrant later life, and the very real challenges rural communities continue to face.

28:53 | Closing Reflections – What CORAH can teach us about building on the strengths and capacities already present in rural communities.

Host 0:00

This podcast series was made possible through a generous grant from the Entente Foundation, supporting innovative projects that improve the lives of older adults. Welcome to Age Reconsidered, where we rethink what it means to grow older. I'm your host, Kelly O'Neill. We're coming to you from the Nova Scotia Center on Aging at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax. Most of what we hear about aging is pretty one-sided. This podcast is here to help change that narrative. We're exploring research about aging and turning it into conversations, stories, lived experiences, and ideas from people who are rethinking what it means to grow older. Because aging isn't just something that happens to other people, it's a reality for all of us. And as a wise young person once said to me, we're all living this life for the first time.

The story often told about growing older in rural communities is often about barriers: About having to travel long distances to access limited services about transportation challenges; and about the increasing hardship of remaining at home as people age. 

But rural communities are also places where neighbors know one another, where people look out for each other, where people have deep roots and strong community connections. Maybe the real story of rural aging isn't one of hardship or resilience alone, but of how these two realities exist side by side.

Jennifer Wesman 2:35

This had a real impact on older adults in our communities who have additional barriers facing them, like transportation, isolation, lack of getting resources. And of course, during COVID, people were looking, were craving and thirsty for resources. And so we kept our doors open when everybody else was closing them.

Host 2:54

Jennifer Westman is CORAH project coordinator in Middleton, Nova Scotia, in the heart of the province's Annapolis Valley. Originally launched as a pilot partnership between the Nova Scotia Community College and the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care. CORAH has since expanded to two additional campuses in Shelburne and Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, serving older adults from hundreds of rural communities across the province.

Jennifer Wesman 3:20

So here at our CORAH site in uh small little Middleton, we have about, I'm gonna say, up to 400 people every week. Um we had, I think, 1,350 last month alone come within the month. They travel about a half an hour each in each distance to get to CORAH. Um, within the first three years, our numbers continued to grow and grow and grow. And people weren't really sure how a program like CORAH would be welcomed or received in the community. But by 2023, we had 80% of programs were um filled with wait lists. We had, you know, older adults bringing friends coming out, hearing about us, and you can really see that, and you'll experience that during your time here at CORAH today about the relationships that were built and that um social isolation piece and how important CORAH is for combating that. So our success uh really fueled the idea of CORAH as a pilot project and how it could roll out in some of our other campuses. So Port Hawkesbury was chosen as one of the other campuses for expansion in 2023 and Shelburne. So we now have our three um campuses, and every single campus is just thriving in ways that like we didn't even see coming. But it really shows, I think, how a program like CORAH is so important to older adults, specifically in a rural environment. So the we have four program pillars that are basically the foundation of all of the work that we do and the programs that we provide. Those are healthy practices, healthy relationships, um, healthy eating, and active living. And each CORAH site, no matter where they are in the province, really focuses on the assets and the strengths of our communities and finding out what the needs are in these four pillars and putting together programs. So whether it's a weekly presentation that's focused on a healthy practice that older adults can do, you know, for healthy aging, whether it's a fitness program, we have about 13 or 14 fitness programs happening here every week for hundreds of older adults. And we've also got programs like sewing, road cooking, and knitting that really focus on those social relationships. So those are examples of building healthy relationships where older adults can support each other, develop, you know, peer relationships and that quality of relationship too. So it's not just people coming to a program once and participating in a pillar of programming, but it's like that social relationship piece is really, really big as well.

Host 5:45

And I was interested to hear about the difference between this as a hub program that's considered a hub. How does that differ from a program in your mind or just a service?

Jennifer Wesman 5:54

Yeah, so I think when you when people generally think about a program or a service, it's an organization or business providing something for someone. They may not necessarily know what that person needs. But in a hub model like CORAH, we pride ourselves on being a place where people come together and where people have a voice, specifically older adults. So within a hub model, we are regularly checking in with our participants to find out what they want, more programs, what services they want, and doing our best to respond. So we actually have in a couple of days our annual program survey coming out, which we'll send to thousands of older adults, and then we'll go through the data and then we will use that along with our four pillars of programming to guide our future direction of programs. People will come to CORAH and they'll see someone they haven't seen in a while, or somebody will introduce them to somebody. And if someone needs support with transportation, because our transportation is not always reliable or always goes to some of the areas where older adults are living, whether it's like up over the mountain or some of our rural routes, but people will connect, and that is the beauty of CORAH is it's those connections and um people looking out for each other. Strength of community is really strong here. People know each other, but we have also people living in isolation who maybe don't know each other or are new people coming into the area. And so I think the strength here that I see is that people welcome people with open arms. And I think CORAH has been a big part of that because of the volume of older adults coming here. Like I really, when I started here in 20, I started working here at CORAH in 2022, and I couldn't believe the number of people that were coming here. I mean, it's just and how welcoming people were to other people. So they really create that space, and I think that's one of our greatest strengths for sure.

Room sound from safety session 7:55

Um stay safe, everybody, and have a wonderful day. And Sharon will be here for a few minutes if anyone wants to chat with her. Otherwise, please get ready for the group or something.

Host 8:08

I wanted to see CORAH for myself, so I spent a day at the Annapolis Valley campus, about an hour and a half outside of Halifax. I sat in on a seminar about staying safe online and dropped in on a rug hooking group.

Room sound from rug hooking session 8:20

The piece I've been working on this winter encompasses all forms of I'll say textile work. It has embroidery, it has punch needle, it has hooking, it has everything. It's called winterscapes, and everyone interprets it their own way. So I helped it.

Host 8:37

I went way outside my comfort zone slash skill level and took part in a lively line dancing session led by an older adult. What struck me most wasn't any single activity. It was the atmosphere Jennifer had described. I felt extraordinarily welcomed by everyone I met and saw how people genuinely respected and cared for each other. I had a chance to speak to a group of older adults who regularly come to CORAH and ask them what it's like to grow older in a rural community.

CORAH members9:06

Well, I used to live in the city when I was younger. My dad was in the forces. And when we came to the valley, I came to the valley when I would get married, and this is what I call home, because you can wake up in the morning and you can hear the birds sing or look in the meadow and the deer are there. Whereas if you're in the city, all you hear is Hong Kong or the rut of traffic. You don't have time to take in uh the creation of uh of nature, and uh you don't have that communication of uh if you see somebody on the street, just say hello. You don't do that in the city, you don't have that.

9:48

Okay. I think uh when you're speaking about uh aging in a rural community, uh from living in a city and from being rural, I find that in some ways it may be easier to age here because aging can be inclusive. Whereas in the city you don't have as many opportunities. You may have a grocery store that's open until 12, but here you have a neighbor that'll give you some milk.

Host 10:21

What is community here for you? What does that look like to you? What does it mean to you? I see Deb lighting up.

Host and CORAH members 10:29

If you look alert, I'm gonna be on you. All right. I think it's just what you see right here, it's just our our our sense of community and camaraderie and some things that we have in common, activities that we do together, just reaching out towards each other. That's it. Okay, and I can go over to Brenda G.

10:49

So for the the community feel here is that it's like a tapestry. I've been working with Bill lately on the museum, the railway museum. We're having a fundraiser there. My husband knows Howard. I've known Trudy for 34 years. Tave is my neighbor, and we all cross each other in fitness classes and other places in town, and it's it's a tapestry.

I am um, I'm relatively new. I've just been here three years from British Columbia. I was the same for the first two winters that I was here. Um my husband passed away a while ago. But I started here at CORAH in the fall, and I belong to the Quilters Guild and exercise classes and presentations and so on. And the thing that I notice as a single individual, it is so heartwarming for me to come in here and know that I don't have to worry who I am or what I am or whatever. There's always one or two or more people that remember my name. I always feel included, whether I'm at a single table doing quilting or I'm in one of the chatty groups. And um, I just now I don't know what I would do without CORAH. It's fabulous.

Well, CORAH is awesome. It's just awesome. And I just find that when, like for line dancing, you just go and they you make a mistake, you just laugh. You just laugh and have fun. And the same with the exercise programs and with me, with health issues and Alzheimer's. I needed the socialization, and I just feel that you come and you feel uplifted and full of joy when you leave.

A friend of mine says it saves her marriage every week. I pull in the driveway to pick her up and she says, Start the car. Let's get out of here.

Host 12:46

An interesting and surprising thread that came up in the conversation is how people spoke about CORAH as almost a place of refuge. They talked about it as a place where they could feel good about themselves, something that isn't always the case elsewhere.

CORAH members13:00

I find that CORAH is something that's all inclusive but not judgmental. And there's I detect there's no hidden agenda. And the world is so filled with hidden agendas or explicit agendas which are negative, that it's very uh debilitating if you look at the broader picture in that respect. But when I come here and when I associate with people that I've met here, I don't have that feeling. It's very liberating in that sense that uh it's uh it's a great grounding mechanism. And I really appreciate the fact that people don't seem to come here with uh an agenda that they want to change me in some way. The change is up to me. And I appreciate that. So thank you.

Um acceptance. I think that's a big word that like doesn't matter what program you're in or you're attending, you're accepted for face value. You are who you are, and and that's okay with everybody. And you're heard here too. I think the older you get, the less the younger people hear you or even want to, you know, acknowledge that you have any information or wisdom, right? They just kind of, yeah, you're too old, you don't know anything. Um, but not that doesn't happen here. People listen to you. You get feedback. It's great.

I think um as we get older that our confidence can sometimes decline because our purposes are different. And I think for me, this has been in an environment where my confidence has increased.

Um in terms of uh, you know, the the ability to uh feel protected, I think when you're in the space here a couple of years ago, I went through open heart surgery and of course have stubborn decided to come back to exercise sooner than I should have. But it was it turned out all right because the people in the class actually looked after me and you know, kind of told me to when to when to back off and do that. So it really worked out well in the sense that there was a class to come to that I felt that I could come to and work my way through to a different level of health.

To me, it's a sense of belonging. You come here and you feel like you're part of the group and all that, and if you're not there for one day or for one class, people are wondering, where is Rachel? Is she okay? And all this stuff. So it's uh a sense of belonging, of um learning, of being uh that people care for you, even though if you're not there. And to me, it's also a way of getting out of the house because I live in the middle of a field, which I'm okay with. And and to see different people, different kinds of people, and to learn different things too.

I moved here five years ago from a small town in Ontario of 35,000. And I belonged to uh a seniors group there. And um it was very competitive. It wasn't it wasn't like it as you weren't just automatically uh accepted for who you are. You're just everybody was looking to see if they could do better than you or or if you did better than them. Jealousy and I I don't know, I can't say that it it's like that in all cities, but that was the other experience I had in a seniors group in a bigger place. This is better.

Much better. I came here, like my wife said Maureen said, just to help her out. And I've stayed. Not not because I had to. I stayed because I enjoyed it. You meet people like Al, you know, and Deb, and and all the other people that I've met, just because we make coffee and put out groceries and and we love you.

But it's helped it helps me, you know.

Jennifer Wesman 17:06

You know, we create certainly a very safe, inclusive, welcoming space for people. So at the college, they talk about the student experience and people working together to make sure students have a positive experience that's really focused on them, participant or student-driven. But at CORAH, we talk about the CORAH experience. So, again, like having what do we need to do to make sure the CORAH experience is positive, older adults are engaged, they have a voice. And I think that's really where we pride ourselves on is it's a model that's worked, and we didn't know how it worked when we first started. But our numbers speak for themselves. Like it's it's incredible. Um, yeah, I'm just going through our data now. Last year alone, we had over 8,000 participants just within, I think it was like nine months of programs. And I just have some survey highlights here. It's interesting because when we surveyed our core of participants, the words that came up time and time again were community, engaging, knowledge, health, enjoyment, friendships, and learning. You know, our older adults said that they they enjoyed learning presentations and connecting with people and being involved. And I think, you know, they have agency in helping to shape the program, and that says a lot. So it's not somebody up here deciding what programs or what somebody needs, but it's the community itself. So it's really, I'm gonna say, a grassroots community model for sure. We always say we advertise, do you have an idea or of a presentation or topic? And we invite you to share your voice or your idea. So I think that's the biggest challenge about CORAH is there's not enough days to be able to deliver everything that everybody has to offer because we have such an incredible wealth of people and skills in our in our community here.

Host 18:48

A defining feature of CORAH's hub model is its emphasis on lifelong and long life learning. A lot of this happens as a result of CORAH's unique location within community college campuses around the province. This innovative approach means that intergenerational community arises naturally.

Jennifer Wesman 19:06

So, where we're located here at the college, we've got VON right across the hall from us. We've got a daycare on the other side of us, we've got students, faculty, staff throughout the college, and it truly is a model of an intergenerational model that, you know, supports everybody connecting on campus. And I think that's also the beauty about CORAH is we have people who come to CORAH and maybe their grandchild comes here, or maybe their um son or daughters, you know, their great-great-grandchildren come to the daycare. You know, we've it's it's really neat to see that we actually had one woman who came here into our space. This was during a project we had with the with some students, and um one of the students said, My grandparent comes to CORAH. And she's like, Oh, that's really cool. And she's like, My father used to come here to the college back when it opened up in 19, I think it was in the sometime in the 60s. And our space used to be, I guess, an auto shop, and they used to teach how to pump gas here at the college. And so it's neat to you hear these stories, and the students will be like, Oh, wow, really? That was like a something, you know, people did. So naturally, relationships emerge, and you can really see how those relationships even trickle out into the greater community when you're walking down the street and so-and-so saying hi to so-and-so, and you know, it all I'd say starts right here at the college and in a community college environment like this.

Host 20:32

And uh you mentioned, for example, as an example of the type of intergenerational learning, I guess the plumbing students can deliver.

Jennifer Wesman 20:38

Yeah. So for the past five years, we've had the NSCC plumbing students come and um present about basic plumbing, basically to help seniors to age in place. And we have a lot of our older adults living in big old homes, which often, you know, need a lot of um plumbing required. And if if somebody can can learn a simple skill to help them age in place, which certainly happens with the plumbing students, that goes a long way. Like we've also um collaborated with our nursing students and our CCA students here. We've had healthy aging panels where we've had uh a panel of CORAH folks with students, and students can ask questions around um aging and staying engaged and what does it mean. And so a lot of community conversations happen. So programs like that really benefit not only seniors but also students as well as they prepare to go out into um the workforce.

Host 21:30

Listening to Jennifer, I found myself thinking that this really wasn't about plumbing or nursing or daycare down the hall. It was about creating opportunities for generations to see one another differently. I wondered whether the people who come here experienced it that way too.

CORAH members21:45

The students here, like for plumbing, we go up and they show us how to change a sink and change a toilet and this and that and the plumbing, and those students enjoyed every minute as much as we did. And it was a great communication between the young and and the same with the nursing. They we're their guinea pigs when it comes time to practice. And it's just that interaction with them. And and it's it really is wonderful.

And also I've had the opportunity to walk down the hall and wherever I'm going. And the little people are coming out. So I mean, they just naturally take your hand and we just walk to where we go. And you know, it's it's actually wonderful because it gives you the joy of having little people. And I mean, the plumbing course, we can encourage these people because they're just beginning and they're a little bit nervous. And we come out as the people that aren't nervous, even if we are nervous.

Host 22:49

And this is touching on something that I've also noticed, and you know, we hear a lot that ageism can work both ways, right? What I'm not hearing is oh, young people are always on their phones, or you know, the usual kind of litany of things. So there's a chance to kind of understand each other a bit better, maybe. Yeah.

CORAH members23:07

Yes, it's just about uh the challenge of being on your phone. Uh I I think we give young people a good run for their money. I know I do way more than I should.

Part of our gathering is is regaining a sense of purpose. And even just entering the building where there are young people seeing us come, that gives us a sense of purpose in that we are demonstrating that just because you're older doesn't mean life has stopped. There's still some things that are ongoing. So we serve as an example in an intergenerational way of how you can still be dynamic and contributing and still have purpose. Purpose, I think, is superbly important as a part of healthy aging.

Host 23:57

This conversation led to an essential question guiding this entire podcast. What do people think needs changing in the narrative about aging? I asked the group what they'd like others to know.

CORAH members24:08

That we're not dead. Um a lot of people, some of the younger generation, not all of them, but some of them, think we don't know anything. Kids say, well, you're old-fashioned, you don't know the modern technology. We do. We just don't use it as much as they do. But we do know the modern technology, we still know how to learn, we can still do as well as some of them can do. And if we put our mind to it, we can do as much as they can, if not more. We we just sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit for what we we do and what we know and where we can help and how we can help, you know, when when we have students down here. If we can encourage them, you know, pat yourself on the back. It helps them. If they're having a bad day, if we can cheer them up, more power. I don't say dead, but we're we're we're not uh thought of as being important anymore.

25:19

Well, a lot of people think once you retire, but you're still eager to learn and have connection and have experiences and everything. And not only that, you have a lot of experience to share and knowledge through your years of working or raising a family or living life. So I I don't think you know you want to be thought about in that way, not oh, you're old now, that's it.

Um challenges those stereotypes. For example, um, some people may think older adults means people are frail or they're they don't want to get involved or they don't want to get engaged. But even if we look at frailty, there's there's a whole scale of frailty. And you can't say that all people are one thing. And so it's those stereotypes that CORAH breaks down. Like I am just amazed at how how vibrant. We had um a 99-year-old still walking coming to uh our indoor walking program, and we had 7-0, 7-0 walkers, older adults sign up to um do indoor walking in our gym. So I'm just amazed at how engaged people are and how that combats the way that many people look at at older adults as frail, because believe me, they're not. They are so vibrant and so strong in spirit, body, and mind. Even around, I'm thinking like technology, we do a lot of technology support here. And uh, some people may think, well, seniors don't want to learn about technology, but that is not true. If you look at our tech talk program that we have every month, we've got 40 people come into that. We've got people wanting to learn about AI, to learn um how to use their technology devices to communicate with their grandchildren. So there's this thirst for lifelong learning, and we say long life learning as well, too. So it's breaking down those type of stereotypes.

Host 27:28

What do you think you've learned from the older adults who come here?

Jennifer Wesman 27:31

What have I learned? Well, that piece about really enjoying every moment of your life and that the moments matter and just the experiences that people have, and that, you know, no matter who you are or what age you are, we're all suffering in different ways. And I think that people need people, and that's the way that's our strengths, and that's part of being human. And so from our the older adults that come to CORAH, it's just this vibrancy of life and living and embracing the world around you in the here and now and the people around you. I think that social piece is huge and um just to not take those things for granted for sure. Aging in rural communities is different than aging in cities. I mean, there are barriers, and I think that there's those barriers that we need to continue to address, like that piece around transportation, isolation, you know, lack of mental health supports. In a rural environment, you have, you know, less taxpayers, there's less supports. We've seen our hospitals close, we've seen banks close, we've seen businesses close. But we don't want to have a negative spin because everything has its ups and downs. And the vibrancy that's here in a rural environment is, I think, so incredible. So in terms of a rural environment, there's a there's some challenges, but there's so many good things.

Host 28:53

The story of rural aging is often told through the lens of barriers. Rural communities across the country continue to be underserved, and nothing I heard at CORAH diminishes that reality. But what I also saw at CORAH was something equally real. A community that draws on the strengths of rural life, where neighbors know each other and help each other out. A community that starts from the premise that older adults have capacities, strengths, and valuable insights to contribute. A community where people are afforded the dignity of both giving and receiving. A place where it's okay to make mistakes. A space where you're not going to be judged and people listen to what you have to say. Korra is a place where older and younger people can hang around together and support each other. To me, all of this is part of the natural flow of an authentic community. Somewhere here is a deeper story about rural aging. Korra reminds us that solutions to the challenges of rural aging don't always begin by asking what's missing. Sometimes they start with recognizing and building on what's already there. 

*

Many thanks to our recording and production engineer at Mount St. Vincent University, Keelan Black. 

I'm Kelly O'Neill. Thanks for being here. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with others. Follow us, subscribe, and leave your comments. 

This podcast series was made possible through a generous grant from the Entente Foundation, supporting innovative projects that improve the lives of older adults.