EMBOLDEN Trial Update

We have successfully wrapped up our EMBOLDEN program in Toronto and Hamilton. The study welcomed 92 participants from two neighborhoods in Toronto and 232 from eight neighborhoods in Hamilton. A special thank you to our 40 Community Advisory Board members for their valuable contributions for ensuring that each neighborhood offered a warm environment for our participants. Their insights provided essential context about the local areas, enabling the research team to make necessary adjustments to create spaces that were welcoming and culturally aware of participants’ needs. This support has truly made a difference in the lives of individuals in Toronto’s Downtown East and Hamilton who participated in the program. Since the final program session in March 2025, we have collected the final round of study data from all participants, including interviews with all participants and additional interviews with a subset of those in the intervention group where we gathered numerous positive experiences and stories from the older adults involved.

We are committed to swiftly analyzing all data and disseminating the full results. We are excited to share these findings with our research partners and citizen partners from our Community Advisory Boards and Strategic Guiding Council, and we have multiple strategies for knowledge mobilization in place, including community events.