Dear Age-Friendly Community,
As we enter the fall season, we have some major milestones ahead of us that we are excited to tackle together with our Steering Committee and community members. These include:
- Conducting one final focus group with older people of color
- Completing the quantitative and qualitative data analysis
- Writing the final needs assessment report
- Sharing and celebrating the final report
- Providing all towns with their individual data
- Applying for designations for four towns who have committed to joining our Age-Friendly designated area
The goal is for the community to begin an in-depth discussion of the needs assessment results and what it will mean for their communities to truly be Age-Friendly.
2023 will bring work on the implementation plan where we will decide what specific things we want to do to make our communities better places to age. To go along with that, we are researching funding opportunities for communities in our area to be able to act on the implementation plans.
Whether you've been with us since the beginning, or have joined recently, we want to thank you and welcome you to our Age-Friendly work!
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Welcome to the New Age-Friendly Program Manager, Carol Foote
By Lynne Feldman, Director of Community Services, LifePath
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We are excited to announce that Carol Foote has been appointed to the position of Age-Friendly Program Manager. Carol, who has been with LifePath since 2018, has extensive outreach and community engagement experience, most recently as LifePath's Development and Outreach Director.
"We are all aging and, while our focus is on older adults, I love that the results of any Age-Friendly project have positive effects across the age spectrum. Over time, the resulting work will prove integral to the vitality of the communities in which we live, work, play - and age," said Carol.
With another year remaining in the 3-year project, Carol will be responsible for ensuring the project goals are met. These goals include releasing the needs assessment data, facilitating a community dialog about the results, and supporting the towns in writing an implementation plan to help our community achieve its vision of being a great place to age. Carol continues, "I am excited to work with the steering committee, share information gathered through the survey, and support those involved who will use this base of collected knowledge to create solutions that address the missing pieces that we now grapple with."
Carol would like to invite anyone interested in getting to know her or the Age-Friendly project to reach out to her at cfoote@LifePathMA.org or 413-829-9199.
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Enrollment in AARP's Age-Friendly Network:
More and more communities across the country and in our region are joining AARP's Age-Friendly Network, thereby making a commitment to create environments that are more supportive of older adults and people of all ages. Nationwide, the membership of the network has exceeded 650 communities. In Franklin County and the North Quabbin, 20 of our 30 towns are official members of the network, and 4 others have made the public commitment to become more age-friendly, and will be officially enrolled soon. Here is how the enrollment status of each of our area towns stands:
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As the project moves forward, we will continue to connect with Councils on Aging and Select Boards to enroll more area towns into the AARP network. Please reach out if you would like your town to host a short presentation on the project and consider becoming an Age-Friendly community. (cfoote@LifePathMA.org / 413-829-9299) |
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Spotlight on Age-Friendly Work In Action - Jackson, Wyoming
"First, volunteers tackled downtown crosswalks, which became icy in winter and also obstructed by packed chunks of snow left by the curb from snowplows. Age-friendly volunteers came up with the idea of putting ski poles at crosswalks to help seniors stay balanced. Poles were donated and their handles wrapped in florescent green tape so they're visible. It has since been expanded to 10 intersections.
Meanwhile, the Town of Jackson was embarking on a downtown beautification project, and Age Friendly Jackson Hole worked with town officials to get new pedestrian benches designed to accommodate seniors — with rounded armrests, slightly angled backrests, and no sharp edges — rather than the Western-themed design made of antlers that the town had been considering."
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Upcoming Events and Workshops
Villages Learning Series
A series of monthly virtual workshops bringing together members and volunteers of the Village programs in the area, as well as COAs, to hear about different services and supports for elders in the region. Past speakers have presented on issues like protective services, transportation resources for elders, and maintaining healthy boundaries between volunteers and consumers.
No sessions are currently planned, but past presentations can be accessed by clicking here.
Here is a listing of Village programs that serve our communities:
serving Northfield
Petersham Partners, 978-724-0078
serving Whately, Deerfield, and Sunderland
serving Shutesbury, Leverett, Wendell, and New Salem
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Contact info:
For questions, comments, or if you would like to share a story or article through this newsletter, please reach out to Carol Foote, Age-Friendly Project Manager, at:
413-829-9199
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Age-Friendly Project
Steering Committee Members
Our deepest gratitude to each of our steering committee members:
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Amanda Mankowsky - North Quabbin Community Coalition
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Cathy Savoy - Athol Council on Aging
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Denise Schwartz - OASIS council at Greenfield Community College
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Jeanne Dodge - LifePath's Rainbow Elders
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Michael Archbald - Foothills Health District
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Lynne Feldman - LifePath
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Mary Giannetti - Heywood Healthcare
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Meg Ryan - FRCOG
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Rachel Stoler - FRCOG
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Peggy Vezina
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About the Age-Friendly project:
LifePath's Age- and Dementia-Friendly project is a community-led effort that aims to bring about policy and systems-level change to make Franklin County and the North Quabbin more livable for people of all ages, with a focus on older adults.
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This global model was developed by the World Health Organization and has been adopted by over one thousand communities worldwide. Using an 8-domain model focused on both the built environment and the social environment, the project will convene and support regional stakeholders to assess the current needs of the older population and propose concrete steps to meet those needs, including policy and planning recommendations, community education programs and physical improvements.
The Age-Friendly Project is supported by the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Fund, one of three funding opportunities created as a result of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's landmark revision of the Determination of Need regulation in 2017.
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