Project Update
Greetings,
We are thrilled to share with you that the region of Franklin County and North Quabbin has been designated as an Age-Friendly Community and officially enrolled in AARP’s Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. As you may recall, enrollment in AARP’s network is the first phase in the age-friendly process, denoting a community’s intention to better understanding and improving the conditions facing older adults.
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In addition to this regional designation, nine new area towns have also gained membership in the network after declaring their commitment to achieving a more livable community for older adults and people of all ages. These nine towns are: Athol, Conway, Greenfield, Leyden, Montague, New Salem, Orange, Wendell, and Whately. This brings up the total of age-friendly municipalities in the region from 2 to 11, with Deerfield and Sunderland already part of the network. Several other towns are in the process of gaining the designation, including Erving, Leverett, Bernardston and Colrain.
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Please join us for a special virtual event on Tuesday July 6 from 3 to 3:45pm. We will formally receive the age-friendly designation from AARP, hear from local age-friendly champions and share updates on upcoming steps. To register for this event, please click the link below or contact Nour Elkhattaby Strauch at [email protected] / 413-829-9274
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After enrollment, the age-friendly process transitions into a needs assessment phase, followed by creating an age-friendly action plan, and finally implementation. The upcoming needs assessment will include a community survey, interviews, listening sessions, and other ways to gather the needed data. Planning for this phase is underway, and community members will be invited to provide input through different workgroups.
As we move forward into the next phase of this process, we will continue to connect with Councils on Aging and Select Boards to enroll more area towns into the AARP network. Please reach out to us if you would like your town to host a presentation next.
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Age-Friendly Funding Opportunity |
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The Community Mobility Design Challenge 2021 is a grant opportunity offered by the National Center for Mobility Management.
With funding from the Federal Transit Administration, this grant will support communities in creating innovative solutions to support people facing transportation barriers to healthcare access, economic opportunity, healthy food, or community and peer support opportunities. The focus of the grant is to aid populations that currently do not have access to equitable transportation because of income status, minority status, location, a pre-existing condition, or other reason.
The application deadline for this grant is July 12th. Applicant organizations must be a non-profit or a government agency that is able to receive, or be a subrecipient of, federal funding.
Click HERE to access the Request for Proposals and the Application instructions. Any questions can be directed to Kirby Wilhelm at [email protected] or 202-489-6020
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Healthy Aging Spotlight
With a growing focus on issues of healthy aging worldwide, we now have access to many more successful aging related models to inform and inspire our work. The World Health Organization's Global Network of Age-Friendly Communities has surpassed 1100 participating towns and cities, and many other innovative solutions are being created and tested by civil society and local governments.
One of the success stories from Western Massachusetts is the Quaboag Connector (QC), a low cost, personalized public transportation option serving nine communities from the Quaboag Valley region since 2017. The QC is funded by both government and private grants, and it costs only $2 one way to travel between or within the participating towns. Anyone from these communities can use the service, but priority is given to older adults, persons with disabilities, medical rides and job training appointments.
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The Quaboag Connector does not have set routes, but rather provides a curb to curb service. In this way, it eases the burden of getting to and from a transportation hub, which is a common challenge in rural communities and especially for older residents. The QC also offers a number of other age-friendly features, such as ADA accessible vehicles and driver assistance getting on or off the van. Moreover, the QC offers booking through phone and voicemail instead of internet based booking.
Click HERE to access the QC's website, and HERE to learn more about the organizations involved in this work and how it differs from classic microtransit models.
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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 Age-Friendly Project Manager Nour Elkhattaby Strauch at:
413-829-9274
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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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Christina Johnson - South County Senior Center
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Denise Schwartz - OASIS council at GCC
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Jeanne Dodge - Rainbow Elders
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Lisa Enzer - Movement Educator
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Liz Kelner - Interfaith Council of Franklin County
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Lynne Feldman - LifePath
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Mary Giannetti - Heywood Healthcare
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Rachel Stoler - FRCOG
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About the Age-Friendly project:
LifePath's Age- and Dementia-Friendly Communities 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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