City of Kingston: Smart Cities and Isolation

Visibly aged hands on lap.

Being a truly smart city means being smart about tackling isolation

How do we reconcile the incredible possibilities of technology with the continued presence of loneliness, isolation and disconnection?

Kingston is focusing on the specific challenges of older adults to tackle isolation by developing outstanding solutions to common problems. These include:

  • health-focused sensor technologies and analytics in long-term care and home settings,
  • a mentorship program to foster intergenerational collaboration and knowledge transfer, and
  • a multi-modal mobility tool with wearables to make it easier, safer and more secure for older adults to connect with their families throughout their journey in the community.

Kingston will build on its burgeoning innovation ecosystem of post-secondary institutions, research institutes, public sector organizations and global corporate partners including Bell Canada, IBM Canada, ESRI Canada to share ideas, co-create knowledge and try new solutions. Findings and best practices will be shared on an open access-open data platform with communities across Canada.