What is SHAFE?

In 2018 Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra and AFEdemy launched, in close cooperation with several European organisations, the concept of SHAFE (Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments). SHAFE was a Thematic Network, approved by the European Commission to build and deliver a Joint Statement (a Framing Paper and a Call to Action) in 2018. After that, SHAFE evolved by taking its more than 170 partner organisations to a European Stakeholders Network, which is currently working to deliver a White Paper, focused on implementation. SHAFE is now a part of several ongoing initiatives, as an objective and methodology of work, e. g. in the Action Plan of Group D4 of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

The introduction of SHAFE as a concept is intended to draw the attention of policy makers, organisations and citizens of the need to better align ICT with built environments that are focused on an enhancement of the major concept areas of People and Places (user-centred design). SHAFE has its roots on the holistic age-friendly environments concept, developed by the World Health Organization in 2007, but now further developed into the new era of digitalisation and health.