The Aging Report
Join Us in Celebrating Older Americans Month
Each year, more and more older adults are making a positive impact in and around their community. As volunteers, employees, employers, educators, mentors, advocates, and more, they offer insight and experience that benefit the entire community. That’s why Older Americans Month (OAM) has been recognizing the contributions of this growing population for 56 years.

Led by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) each May, Older Americans Month provides tips to help older Americans stay healthy and independent, and resources to help communities support and celebrate their diversity.

This year’s Older Americans Month theme, Connect, Create, Contribute , encourages older adults and their communities to:

  • Connect with friends, family, and local services and resources.
  • Create through activities that promote learning, health, and personal enrichment.
  • Contribute time, talent, and life experience to benefit others.

Communities that support and recognize older adults are stronger! Join us in strengthening our community – this May and throughout the year.
Help Advocate for the
Re-authorization of the Older Americans Act
As we celebrate Older Americans Month, the Agency on Aging Northeastern Illinois urges you to help us and the nationwide Aging Network in advocating for the re-authorization of the Older Americans Act. Since its inception in 1965, the Older Americans Act (OAA) has been the cornerstone of the nation’s home and community-based service system which supports older Americans ability to live at home and in the community with dignity and independence for as long as possible.
The Act provides a wide range of cost-effective services including transportation, home-delivered meals, caregiver support and respite, and protection against elder abuse. By supporting home and community-based services, the OAA helps many older adults avoid the more costly care of institutional settings paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. It is crucial that Congress authorize the Older Americans Act because by 2030, all baby boomers will be over the age of 65. Demographics demand and must drive federal focus on policies that support older adults and their caregivers. Congress must act on the Older Americans Act before October 1, 2019.
 
Enabling aging in place should be a national commitment, in fact both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have shown support of aging in place as an important policy goal for our country. Achieving it, however, requires that policymakers address significant challenges and seize new opportunities that promote health and independence as people age. Fostering a society in which aging at home and in the community is not only the collective desire but also the national expectation requires us to recognize, protect and bolster the Older Americans Act upon which this goal was built.
 
The best way you can help the Agency on Aging Northeastern Illinois advocate for the re-authorization of the Older Americans Act is to connect with your state representatives and congressmen by email, mail or phone and urge them to reauthorize the Older Americans Act and include increased support for communities to prepare for substantial growth in the older adult population. Remind them of the many contributions older adults have had on their communities and the contributions of home and community-based services on the lives of older adults and their caregivers.
 
For more information on how you can advocate for older adults in your communities, visit the website for the Agency on Aging Northeastern Illinois at www.AgeGuide.org/Advocacy
 
Communities that support and recognize older adults are stronger! Join us in strengthening communities by helping to keep the services older adults need to maintain their quality of life.
Your Voice Matters!
The Agency on Aging Northeastern Illinois will be holding two public hearings on Thursday, May 30, 2019.

The purpose of the Public Hearings are to provide an open forum to provide information about the Agency on Aging's proposed FY20 plans, budget, funding formula, and priorities for funding community based services for older adults and family caregivers and to give the general public a place comment on these plans. 


We invite our funded partners, elected officials, aging network professionals and members of the community to make your voice heard on ways we can improve our services!

No RSVP is required
10 AM - Senior Services of Will County
251 N. Center Street, Joliet 60435

1:30 PM - Agency on Aging Field Office
245 W. Roosevelt Road, Building 6, Suite 41-43
West Chicago, 60185
Lucinda Hurt Honored as 2019 Outstanding Young Person
of Illinois
Lucinda Hurt, Community Planner for The Agency on Aging of Northeastern Illinois, has been recognized as a 2019 Outstanding Young Person of Illinois by the Illinois Jaycees. For over 50 years, the Illinois Jaycees has hosted The Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) of Illinois program which recognized individuals between the ages of 18 and 40 who excel in their chosen fields, endeavors and show a great commitment to their respective communities.

Lucinda is being recognized in the category of Humanitarian and/or voluntary leadership. She is director of Wesley United Methodist Church food pantry, Wesley's Table.  Lucinda recruits and organizes volunteers, manages food pick-up and distribution and much of the day-to-day operations including outreach. 

Read More »
Stay Up to Date with the Agency on Aging Blog!
24th Annual Senior Lifestyle Expo
August 20 & 21, 2019

Drury Lane
100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

For more information, contact Kaitie Hauser at 630-293-5990 or visit seniorlifestyleexpo.org
28th Annual Celebrity Chefs Brunch benefiting Holiday Meals on Wheels & Aging Services
November 3, 2019

Drury Lane
100 Drury Lane
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181

For more information, contact Kaitie Hauser
at 630-293-5990
The Agency on Aging Northeastern Illinois was established in 1974. Services funded or coordinated by the Agency on Aging meet the diverse needs of the most rapidly growing population in Illinois. Over 681,000 seniors age 60 and over live in the agency's eight-county service area:

DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties

Agency on Aging | 630-293-5990 |  [email protected]  |  www.ageguide.org
P.O. Box 809
Kankakee, IL 60901-0809

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