In urban rehabilitation, the quality of public space is important to improve social interaction and promote active and healthy ageing. However, there is a trend in urban planning to emphasize building and the safety of older people, and social needs, such as the social participation of older people, are often given little attention. Strengthening the link between the building and security components and the social participation and citizenship components is one of the major challenges that urban planning managers, public safety services and policy makers will increasingly face in everyday urban life.

The fifth session of the InterActions Symposium will discuss issues related to the social well-being and safety of older people in public spaces. In addition, the mechanisms of urban planning that can be used to strengthen their social participation and civil rights will also be discussed.

Housing is a crucial part of the social inclusion process. The right to adequate housing is included in all basic documents. However, there are still difficulties with the full implementation of this right, in particular it is noted that existing housing does not meet the needs of people with reduced mobility or in a situation of dependency needing home care. Homes, as places where we want to spend most of our lives, need to be accessible, affordable and suitable to provide care throughout the life cycle, especially in old age. In the fourth session of the InterActions Symposium, we will refocus housing in the context of public policy for inclusion and discuss its repositioning as a center of care throughout the life cycle.

Studies show that most people want to live in their homes as long as possible. However, our homes were not designed to adapt as we age, especially as we get older, lose our autonomy and need to stay at home longer. This was also a lesson we learned during the Covid 19 pandemic.

There is an urgent need to look at homes and see them as an appropriate place for people to develop interactive connections between the home and the public sphere throughout their lives and existential circumstances, thus ensuring their citizenship and right to participate.

This third session of the InterActions Symposium starts by examining the state of lifecycle housing models, focusing specifically on what is happening in Europe and in the USA. Some community projects that seek to strengthen the approach to ageing in place will also be presented.

Today, one of the greatest signs of prosperity is the increase in average life expectancy. However, the prospects of ageing are not the best: older people, even when active, are seen worldwide as fragile, sick and dependent, fostering cases of disregard for their rights, exclusion, marginalization and often situations of crime and violence. Against the backdrop of this reality, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Portuguese Victim Support Association (APAV) have developed a project from January 2019 to June 2020, which was published as a Report: “Portugal an older country”, highlighting some of the gaps in public policies and legislation regarding violence against older people and proposing some recommendations to tackle them.

The second session of the InterActions Symposium presents this report and invites organizations to promote its dissemination and qualify their representatives to prevent and expose this social suffering.