Are We an Age Friendly Community?

What started out as an “older person focused” research project of the World Health Organization has grown dramatically as an approach to building communities which are more inclusive and “appreciative” of the potential people of all ages and levels of abilities have to contribute as citizens. As I learned more about “age friendliness”, many of the principles aligned closely with those of the Mills:

·         Inclusion – everybody belongs

·         Creating opportunities for relationship building and networking (ARH – Building Social Capital) is a key strategy in promoting physical and mental health

·         Many negative consequences of disability and aging are socially constructed

·         “Old” or “disabled” are labels. Labels are too often an easy way of shifting the responsibility for removing barriers to inclusion from society to people who are “at the margins”. Another way to look at this is a need to reduce “deficiency thinking”.

·         Capacity thinking – when we look at individuals as citizens (rather than clients) and when we look at communities as networks of assets (rather than collections of problems), life changes. We start to build on capacity vs. constantly focusing on what’s “lacking”.

·         Human services providers are part of the answer. Service providers must work together.

·         Thoughtful, inclusive design of built environments, communication and other “systems” reduces the cost of aging and disability.

Through the process of re-thinking our strategic plan, the Mills has decided to adapt the theme of creating age friendly communities.

As a strategic direction, when we reflected on the purposes of our work, it became clear that services that we offer – assisted living, home support and affordable housing, and advocacy activities that we engage in (e.g., promoting accessibility) are means vs. ends in themselves. Further, creating age friendly communities isn’t just a human service agencies job. It truly will “take a village” and the progress we make will benefit everyone!