photo credit LIVENorthern New Jersey’s LIVE (Lifelong Involvement for Vital Elders), an initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest New Jersey (UJC), works with local leaders to make the communities it serves better places in which to grow older. LIVE organizes recreational activities and personal-development programs that help older adults stay active and involved in their communities, thereby helping them to age in place and continue to contribute to their communities well into their older years. The activities offered by LIVE include yoga, Tai Chi, walking clubs, health workshops, and employment counseling. While LIVE is led by United Jewish Communities, it encourages participation from seniors of all ages and backgrounds.
The first LIVE program was established in 2004 in Parsippany, followed four years later by a second LIVE initiative in Caldwell, and in 2010 by a third in Verona. LIVE site coordinators conduct listening sessions with older residents, plan services, and coordinate service delivery through partnerships, which include nonprofits, public libraries, Offices on Aging, community centers, municipalities, places of worship, area universities, and hospitals. Through this broad network, LIVE coordinates participation by its partners and launches new programs for targeted populations. Resident councils, with members from various religious, cultural, and ethnic groups, advise LIVE’s program staff.
LIVE has developed a varied menu of programs and services. A workshop on Going Green for Less Green (addressing finances, recycling, and healthy cooking) is an imaginative combination of subjects that are very relevant to seniors. Co-sponsored by the Interfaith Ministerial Association, Caring for One Another informs participants about ways to make an effective visit with an older person. Additionally, programs include senior walkability studies, and state-endorsed and evidence-based health promotion and wellness classes for older adults, such as Move Today and Take Control of Your Health.
The comprehensive array of programs also includes a focus on increasing home safety, improving memory, training seniors to use public transportation, enrolling in Medicare Part D, and enhancing the coping skills of caregivers. Many of these services are coordinated by a community-based social worker and senior employment specialist. LIVE has also worked with transit authorities to create new bus stops and expand service to include Saturdays, and has developed transportation guides for seniors. A more recent expansion of programming includes comprehensive home-safety assessments.
Because much of its work is conducted through partnerships with stakeholders, LIVE ensures outside support for its initiatives to increase their effectiveness. For many initiatives, in fact, LIVE maintains a “transition to community sustainability” policy, which requires transfers of LIVE initiatives to partner institutions, which will continue to provide services without support from LIVE. LIVE is more focused on using existing resources to make communities more livable for older adults than it is on providing them on a continuing basis.
Each year LIVE works directly with over 2,000 older adults across the three communities it serves. In Parsippany alone, employment counselors helped over 120 older adults find jobs, and counseled hundreds more, while weekly wellness offerings engaged as many as 100 seniors in exercise and health-promotion programs.
Direct services, however, are only a small portion of LIVE’s impact, as much of the organization’s programming focuses on physical and social infrastructure changes to make communities more hospitable to older adults. Yearly surveys of participants confirm great satisfaction and appreciation for LIVE’s work on behalf of older adults. LIVE has also been recognized by the communities it serves. In December 2009, for example, the mayor of Parsippany recognized LIVE for improving the quality of life for the Township’s seniors.
The initial development of LIVE in Parsippany was made possible through a federal demonstration grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging, with matching funds from the Wallerstein Foundation for Geriatric Life Improvement, the Grotta Fund for Senior Care and the United Jewish Appeal. Subsequent efforts in Caldwell and Verona were supported by the Partners for Health Foundation and the United Way.
Today, the LIVE program partners with a number of organizations, including a variety of Jewish agencies, as well as municipal and county groups, such as the Morris County Division on Aging, the Essex County Department of Senior Services, the Township of Parsippany/Troy Hills, the Borough of Caldwell, and the Township of Verona. In addition to expanding geographically, the program is expanding its services, providing more in-home support, and transportation services for older adults.
LIVE has grown a great deal since its inception, and will continue to provide new services and support to help older adults age in place and remain a valuable asset to the communities in which they live. With LIVE, older residents feel less confined to their homes, and continue to contribute to their communities.
More information can be found here