Prof. Suzanne Garon
Professor | School of Social Work, University of Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke, QC, CANADA
Ph. D. in Sociology (Frankfurt, Germany, 1992) is a full professor at the School of Social Work of the University of Sherbrooke
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Biography
Suzanne Garon, Ph. D. in Sociology (Frankfurt, Germany, 1992) is a full professor at the School of Social Work of the University of Sherbrooke. Dr. Garon teaches both at the bachelor and master degree in Social work, as well as in the Ph.D. in Gerontology, where she is responsible for the epistemology seminar. She also trains practitioners in program evaluation in Québec and in different countries (France, Mali).
Dr. Garon is a specialist of evaluation research, more specifically of program evaluation in different areas. She is a founding member of the CERTA Research group (Studies of transitions in lifelong learning) as well as researcher at the Gerontology Research Centre of the CSSS-IUGS (Sherbrooke Geriatric Research Institute of the Health and Social Services Centre). Her research interests are in community development, participatory evaluation methods as well as in the field of social recognition of potentially excluded citizens (such as older adults). She is the author of numerous scientific articles and book chapters and well as the co-author of several books on Non Government Organisations, Social Recognition, Seniors participation.
Since 2006, she has been involved in the Age-Friendly Cities project of the WHO. Since 2008, as the principal investigator, she is strongly involved in a research project, funded by the Older Adult Secretariat of the Québec provincial Government (SAA), to implement and evaluate the Age Friendly Cities in 7 communities in Québec (6 cities and one remote and rural region of 22 small towns and villages). Meanwhile, the model developed by the research team is implemented in 579 cities in Quebec. In 2013, she received a new grant to study the emergent social innovation in these Age Friendly initiatives.
Dr Garon is an elected Board member of the International Federation on Ageing.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Age-friendly Environments
Social Work
Lifelong Learning
Gerontology Research
Community Development
Education (3)
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University: Ph.D., Sociology 1988
University of Quebec: M.Ed., Education 1982
University of Quebec: B.A., Sociology 1980
Links (2)
Featured Articles (5)
Researchers Behind Policy Development: Comparing 'Age-Friendly Cities' Models in Quebec and Wallonia
Journal of Social Work and Practice
2015 Based on a reflexive method, this article explores the roles of researchers behind Age-Friendly Cities and Environments. Referring to Michael Burawoy's division of sociological work (professional, critical, policy and public sociology), it is structured around the ...
International Challenges, local Dilemmas: 'Age-Friendly Cities' Models in Quebec and Wallonia and the practices of social participation of seniors
44th Annual Meeting of the British Society of Gerontology
2015 Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) have become an empirical application of the notion of “active ageing” and an applied field for “environmental gerontology” (Phillipson 2004) or, more broadly, for a community-building approach. At the ...
Collaborative partnership in age-friendly cities: two case studies from Quebec, Canada
Journal of Aging & Social Policy
2014 This article aims to explain the collaborative partnership conditions and factors that foster implementation effectiveness within the age-friendly cities (AFC) in Quebec (AFC-QC), Canada. Based on a community-building approach that emphasizes collaborative ...
Meaning of Home in Later Life as a Concept to Understand Older Adults' Housing Needs: Results from the 7 Age-Friendly Cities Pilot Project in Québec
Journal of Housing for the Elderly
2014 To support older adults' desire to age in place, their housing needs must be well understood. However, little research has explored housing needs from older adults' point of view. This article, based on the results of 49 focus groups (n= 392) and one case study from the Age- ...
Advancing age-friendly communities in Canada
Canadian Review of Social Policy
2013 The “age-friendly cities” concept proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is a multi-sectoral policy approach to address demographic aging in urban settings. Canadian governments at all levels, seniors' organizations and non-governmental ...
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