The Community Practice Lab (CPL) hosted Yuriko Hosono for two weeks in February-March 2025 to facilitate cross-cultural discussions on community occupational practice, community-engaged research, and community-based models to support older adults. The visit is the latest in the CPL’s ongoing collaboration with Nagoya University in Japan.
“After connecting with Nagoya University this past fall around our community work, a faculty member there connected Yuriko with us to arrange the visit,” said CPL Primary Lead Dr. Ryan Lavalley. “We were so excited to continue the partnership by welcoming Yuriko to Chapel Hill.”
Yuriko, a second-year occupational therapy graduate student at Nagoya University in Japan, works with older adults who experience physical or cognitive challenges. Yuriko’s visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill enabled her to learn how the CPL uses community occupational practice to support aging-related initiatives.
During her time in Chapel Hill, the CPL team connected Yuriko with several community partners doing innovative work to support older adults’ ability to age in community:
- Ryan introduced Yuriko to members of ‘s Neighborhood Engagement Team, the result of a CPL partnership to develop sustainable processes for community engagement.
- CPL Fellow Leiha Edmonds connected Yuriko with staff as well as members of the to learn about collaborative efforts to support older adults’ home repair needs.
- CPL Community Program Specialist Kevin Giff invited Yuriko to ‘s bimonthly meeting around building capacity for home- and community-based services through its collective impact model.
Yuriko also spent a day volunteering at , a social engagement program run by the OCDOA that facilitates connection among volunteers, older adults with dementia, and care partners. This experience underscored for Yuriko the importance of social structures to create a community environment that supports, rather than stigmatizes, older adults.
“During this visit, I had the opportunity to learn about several aging-friendly programs where older adults can physically remain in their community longer,” said Yuriko. “These conversations have been really interesting for thinking about cultural differences in approaches to community and aging.”
Yuriko’s discussions with community partners also explored how aging intersects with other experiences and occupations. Yuriko visited the with CPL Fellow Ty Chapman to learn how the Jackson Center facilitates intergenerational connection, learning, and support among students and elders in the historically Black Northside neighborhood. And CPL Fellow Sayoko Kawabata brought Yuriko to the Fairview neighborhood in Hillsborough, N.C. to discuss the community’s efforts to develop the Fairview Community Watch and community center as well as Sayoko’s own community-engaged research about play in Fairview.
“I’m more familiar with the individual focus of occupation, which asks what happened to this individual in the past and how this past has impacted an individual’s identity and occupation,” said Yuriko. “The discussions in Fairview and Northside helped me see that understanding how race affects people’s daily lives requires a focus on community occupation, which asks how systems and policies impact people’s occupations in different and sometimes unequal ways.”
Yuriko also connected with faculty and graduate students in the 黑料网-Chapel Hill’s Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy to discuss community-engaged research methods.
“It has been such a joy to welcome Yuriko to our division and to our communities,” said CPL Lead Dr. Lauren Selingo. “Getting to learn alongside Yuriko has deeply reaffirmed how critical cross-cultural knowledge-building and collaboration are, both personally and in developing the future of occupational science and therapy.”