Across the country community groups, agencies and academics are talking about the urgent need to work together to create a future dramatically more elder-friendly than the one we live in today.
Certainly, ChangingAging is dedicated to this idea. At the moment I’m live-blogging from the University of Washington at a conference called “Working Together for Elder Friendly Futures” sponsored by UW Gerontology. Like many similar conferences I’ve attended in recent years this one features outstanding nationally recognized speakers and panels addressing the most pressing issues and cutting-edge thinking about building elder-friendly communities.
You’d think this is a good sign, right? Not. So. Fast.
The biggest impediment to building elder friendly communities are the nonprofits, government agencies, service providers and academic institutions themselves who are trying so hard to be helpful, said Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power and an internationally renowned community-builder and former director of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
Jim DiersThe problem, Diers challenged the audience of more than 200 academics, agency and service providers, is that the way we currently treat elders or any other vulnerable population “is fundamentally anti-community.”
“We have to start focusing on people’s strengths rather than exclusively on their needs,” Diers said. “In our desire to help people we focus exclusively on what’s wrong with the community and break it up into silos according to our agenda. We separate the built environment from the natural and social environment, even though that’s not how we live. We separate our elders and our young people and people with disabilities. We can’t create community when we’re breaking it up.”
Diers challenged the audience to fundamentally rethink and reorient the way their organizations operate. He challenged them to move away from pushing programs, services and agendas and instead focus on empowering communities to draw on their own strengths to grow.
As an example, Diers described the “Aging Your Way” initiative created by Denise Klein, CEO of the Seattle non-profit King County Senior Services.
The Aging Your Way initiative has facilitated 12 community gatherings in the Seattle area in recent years that begin with residents coming together and doing an exercise asking them to imagine themselves as old. In this frame of mind, they break up into groups and brainstorm what they would want their neighborhood to look like and offer them as older adults.
“What’s amazing is that the themes of what they wanted were the same in every group,” Diers said. “But nothing they identified as a priority for their community was available or even being addressed by service-providers.”
For example, older people felt like they’d spent their entire lives accumulating skills and experiences that translated into wisdom, yet all they were recognized for was their needs. They wanted to share their wisdom with younger people but senior centers only provided social activities with other old people. They wanted access to life-long learning, they wanted to participate in the arts and access to the outdoors.
“Denise was very clear — Senior Services doesn’t have the resources to create all these programs for you. But we can help you come together and organize them yourself,” Diers said.
And that’s exactly what people have been doing with the support of Senior Services. Residents came together and formed Time Banks to exchange services and companionship. Two neighborhoods organized to join the Village to Village Network (I have to tout my neighborhood village, the PNA Village, and the neighboring NEST Village, whose director Judy Kinney is speaking here at the conference as I’m finishing this blog post), a national grassroots movement to foster aging-in-community and intergenerational connectivity. Communities have organized intergenerational dance parties, lifelong learning and opportunities to pursue crafts, cooking and the arts.
Click here for a complete list of projects and models that have been identified by the Aging Your Way initiative to promote elder-friendly communities.
Thank you Kavan for such a thought provoking piece. In reading this article, I could not help but recall my conversations with an 80+ wonderful friend who lives in the very hip Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn (as you could imagine, such a location comes with its share of blessings and challenges). Many of her frustrations mirrors that of Jim Diers – where the aging network too often acts as fixers, and seldom take the time to capitalize on the strengths of the aging population. It is refreshing to hear of programs such as Aging Your Way that are empowering those who still have so much to offer. Well done!
Student
Hi, i am the student of aging200 class at the Erickson School of Aging. After i read this article, i strongly agreed because i am a immigrant from asia and i really feel bad for my parents. A reason why is that they gave up everything at their life at mother’s country and moved to america for my education. Whenever i see them having a difficulty in speaking wise, i really feel bad and i wish if there are well developed program or association that elder people can be more friendly without discrimination and help out each other even if the language they speak is different. so i hope that if this can happen not only in between americans but other immigrants.
Interest in “The Greenhouse Project” led me to this site. As a caregiver for my parents in their 90″s for the last 4 years. All these Ideas and projects to make living better for our elders is a start. The biggest issues creating a hurdle to this badly and urgent needed reality for many seniors is the fact that the information isn’t mostly being shared with enough of the groups that can affect the change the most.There needs to be more push for Geriatric Doctors in every Hospital. ALL Social Workers need this info and training. ALL nursing homes and assisted living facilities need this information. ALL Staff need better training and less turnover. Much could change in our existing facilities if everyone were better trained and the facilities were not allowed to continually work short handed. Nothing will change for elders in any setting until more at the top are taught (or made) to do things differently. The mind set all across the US is that Elder Care is a BIG BUSINESS not a compassionate and ethical service. Most are Aids under the age of 25 that serve our elderly. Most Aids get 8-12 hours of training if any, training is inconsistent so cares given are inconsistent which is the biggest form of stress for the elders. There are too many in the Elder Care business at every level for the wrong reasons. There are lots of well meaning groups with Ideas, and lots of meetings and discussions on these issues, but not much action or change taking place fast enough.Everyone needs to stop talking and start changing curriculum’s and start teaching and acting.
“For example, older people felt like they’d spent their entire lives accumulating skills and experiences that translated into wisdom, yet all they were recognized for was their needs. They wanted to share their wisdom with younger people but senior centers only provided social activities with other old people.”
This is the biggest challenge I have found to creating intergenerational communities that are truly connected. As you mentioned, even our best intentions can lead us to focus on the wrong things. We shouldn’t divide people based on their differences. We should work on bringing people together and learning more about what we have to offer one another.
Couldn’t have said it better. Thanks!