Bird Tales is a therapeutic program for Alzheimer’s patients created by Randy Griffin, a dementia care specialist, and Ken Elkins, an Audubon Society employee. The two educate nursing-home staff members on ways to attract birds to their grounds, and give Alzheimer’s patients the tools necessary to develop bird-watching as a hobby. Participants get the chance to interact with birds on a multi-sensory level and come away with a meaningful experience that they can share with others. In nursing homes where this program has been implemented, the facilities have reported a reduction in the amount of medication necessary to treat Alzheimer’s patients, showing that the bird-watching is making a difference.
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In early 2011, Ipswich, Australia was devastated by floods. As the Brisbane River overflowed and destroyed thousands of homes throughout Queensland, Ipswich and Mayor Paul Pisasale found themselves having to rebuild a thriving community. Partners for Livable Communities previously honored Mayor Pisasale and the city of Ipswich for their efforts to become one of the most livable cities in the world. Recently, Partners intern, Chris Pope, and President Bob McNulty arranged an interview with Mayor Pisasale to discuss Ipswich and how it has progressed forward after the flood, and how they plan to continue to expand their economy in the midst of a global economic crisis. Mayor Pisasale has been a true leader in his effort to make Ipswich a livable community, and example for other communities around the globe to pursue.
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Photo Credit: Alan Rosenblum Courtesy of Estudio Teddy Cruz
Home to the nation’s busiest United States-Mexico border crossing, San Ysidro is a suburb of San Diego, California, that lies just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Comprising mostly third- to first- generation immigrants, San Ysidro is often ignored, viewed as a place to pass through on the way to and from the border. Many San Ysidro-Tijuana families live in a bi-national condition, a state of being that finds families, work, education, affordable housing, health care, and economies tied to one another, and one that is currently struggling with the hot spots of drug cartel violence. Casa Familiar, a San Ysidro-based nonprofit organization, is working to invigorate the community by advocating for and assisting the residents in such areas as immigration services, education, and job placement[i].
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photo credit National Senior Games AssociationThe Good Life Games of Pinellas County encourage adults 50 and over to participate in their own “Senior Olympics,” to promote athleticism and healthy lifestyles. Many older adults are intimidated by the idea of athletic competition, out of fear that an injury or lameness could permanently limit their mobility. Specifically designed to meet the physical capabilities of older adults, the Olympic-style games include archery, track and field, swimming, cycling, and others. Players in Good Life Games are also eligible for statewide and national competitions.
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photo credit Tri City Elder Coalition
Pathways to Positive Aging (PPA) enriches the lives of seniors in the ethnically-diverse Tri-City Area (the cities of Fremont, Newark, and Union City) of Northern California. A partnership between the Tri-City Elder Coalition (TCEC) and the City of Fremont Human Services Department, Pathways to Positive Aging seeks to improve the quality of life for seniors through political advocacy and by leveraging existing resources to develop programs in transportation, community engagement, and health and wellness for older adults.
Pathways to Positive Aging is an advocacy and community-development partnership, created in 2004 with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Partnerships for Older Adults, to create and implement a strategic plan for older adults in the Tri-City Area. PPA is building a community that integrates seniors into the social and cultural dialogue and provides them with readily-accessible, culturally-sensitive, affordable, and effective services. PPA focuses on the availability and effective coordination of health and wellness for older adults. For example, through a partnership with the City of Fremont, PPA established the Senior Help Line, which provides Tri-City seniors and their families with a single resource enabling them to connect to local health, legal, and social services.
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photo credit Cheyenne Botanic Gardens
“The process of working in the Garden has a therapeutic effect: as the plants grow, so does the self-esteem of the older adult volunteers.”—Director, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens
The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are unique not only for their use of solar and wind energy to enhance sustainability, but also because of their workforce, in which many volunteers are older adults, individuals with disabilities, and at-risk youth. According to Gardens staff, 90 percent of the physical labor is done by volunteers. The Gardens are an invaluable resource to the Cheyenne community, offering all the attractions of a beautiful environment, as well as occasions for structured, meaningful, and healthful activity for members of the community.
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photo credit Young At Heart Chorus
Purple Haze, Forever Young, Road to Nowhere; The Clash, Prince, and Sonic Youth—these are just some of the titles and artists whose work is performed by the world renowned Young At Heart Chorus, with members ranging in age from 73 to 89. The Chorus was founded in 1982 by Bob Cilman and Judith Sharpe, evolving from a daily song session with residents of a housing project for the elderly, The Walter Salvo House, in Northampton. Cilman says that he and the staff wanted to provide something more than food for residents. One day a resident announced that she could play the piano and the song sessions were born.
Today, Young At Heart has become an indie, pop, and classic rock chorus. A singing sensation, the chorus performs at such venues as concert halls, theatres, elementary schools, and prisons. The original chorus members included World War I and II survivors, old vaudeville singers, and even a centenarian who circled around Sharpe’s piano to sing classic numbers. After the Chorus performed for several years on small stages, on one night in 1986 everything changed: 84 year-old “Diamond” Lillian Aubrey performed a version of Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy” that brought the house down. Cilman realized there was potential to transform the singing group into something truly special.
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photo credit Wartburg Council for Creative Aging
The Wartburg Adult Care Community (The Wartburg) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing the mind, body, and spirit of older adults. Since its founding in 1899, The Wartburg has offered a continuum of care at its Mt. Vernon campus, and provides outreach to local parishes, senior centers, and civic organizations. In 2010, The Wartburg received a grant to enlist the aid of Lifetime Arts, which consults with many organizations on the design and implementation of creative aging programs and is led by a teaching artist. Lifetime Arts completed a survey of the Wartburg’s senior residents and staff, designed to gauge their interest in the arts. The findings were clear—residents and staff desired more arts and cultural programming.
In 2011, The Wartburg Council for Creative Aging was established to allow its nearly 500 senior residents in the assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing residence, and adult day programs to express themselves through art, song, theater, poetry, and oral histories. In difficult financial times, launching the Council required some creativity. Fortunately, the Council discovered a unique method for both cutting costs and serving the community; The Wartburg’s common rooms were vacant at night, while artists in the community were paying high rents for studio space. Ann Frey, the director of the Council, began recruiting teaching artists to use The Wartburg’s space in the evening as art studios, free of rent. In exchange, the artists were asked to teach classes to the older adult residents.
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photo credit Dances for A Variable Population
Dancers dressed in vibrant red move across The High Line, an elevated historic rail line turned public park in Manhattan’s West Side, enticing passersby to stop and look at the beautiful performance. Half of the dancers seem to be young, fit, and professionally trained. The other half move more slowly, some dancing in place, and some sitting. In fact, they are all older adults.
Dance artist Naomi Goldberg Haas founded and directs Dances For A Variable Population (DVP), a dance company whose goal is to erase the borders between dancers and audience through its unique choreography and dance company, comprising adults 24 to 82 years of age. Haas enjoys site-specific dance performances, which place the audience and dancers of all ages in the same space. She says, “[In these] new conceptions of shared space, we celebrate how dance can be a vehicle for wellness and expression for seniors, persons with disabilities, youth, and regular folk; how dance can change from an ‘under-exposed’ art form in a community to become an active tool for community participation, enthusiasm, and social interaction.”
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photo credit Deeply Rooted Productions
Founded in 1995 by dancers Kevin Iega Jeff and Gary Abbott, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater teaches and performs dance as creative expression and community and spiritual healing. Jeff calls it “world class art from a grassroots perspective.”
Working within an African American dance aesthetic, Deeply Rooted explores topics as varied as the Somali civil war and famine, the quest to live in the face of AIDS, and early-twentieth-century African American cultures. Jeff and Abbott’s choreography stresses both technical virtuosity and the deep exploration of character and community. As one dancer explains regarding Deeply Rooted’s Life, which deals with personal struggles to live with AIDS, “I know I’m telling experiences of things I see every day. Right outside these doors, there’s some things about this piece that are going on.”
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arts & Culture, Chicago, IL, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Cultural Institutions, Health & Wellness, Multicultural
Recess for seniors may sound unusual, but it is just one of many volunteer roles that the Rochester School District’s Office of Extended School Programs has developed to increase community involvement in its elementary schools. The Rochester School Department defines as its goal the enhanced achievement and academic success of students who participate in extended-school programs. Volunteers play a key role in support of these programs. The Office organizes enrichment programs by sharing resources, creating partnerships with businesses and community organizations, and involving parents.
These programs have proven to be a boon to both students and volunteers, many of whom are older adults. Intergenerational activities benefit senior volunteers, who take pleasure in giving back to their communities and participating in a structured social environment. They often exult in the joy of working with children.
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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.
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photo credit Northwood Park Historical Society
The vision of the Norwood Park Historical Society (NPHS) is to be “recognized as a leader, educator, advocate, and resource” in the community of Norwood Park that “values and preserves its historic character and is acknowledged as an area of historical importance to the city of Chicago and the region.” To reach out to older adults, the NPHS launched Voices of Norwood Park, a personal-history project designed to educate older adults about methods for recording their histories and for collecting written and oral histories of their lives and times in Norwood Park.
Norwood Park is one of the oldest, most distinctive, and historically important neighborhoods in the Chicago metropolitan area. NPHS was formed in 1973 to preserve Norwood Park’s history and promote community awareness. The Society has transformed the oldest house in Chicago, which serves as its offices, into a multipurpose community center with a museum and a café. Its museum focuses on Chicago’s far-northwest side and has a growing collection of historical artifacts and research materials.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Chicago, IL, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Engagement, Cultural Institutions, Heritage, Historic Preservation, Intergenerational
photo credit SCOPE
SCOPE’s (Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence) mission is to connect and inspire citizens to create a better community. A private nonprofit, SCOPE is a convener, catalyst and facilitator, partnering with residents to generate collective action around issues affecting quality of life. It is fitting that Sarasota County, as the oldest in the nation and with 30 percent of its residents over 65, focuses considerable attention on aging. Founded in 2001, SCOPE collaborates with Sarasota County residents, elected officials, and community organizations to support broad-based undertakings led by citizens, to solve a variety of community concerns. Initiatives have addressed the environment, transportation, family violence, community change, and the needs of aging residents, to name just a few. All SCOPE activities address issues that strongly influence the quality of life in Sarasota County.
With Sarasota County’s large older adult population, it is not surprising that SCOPE’s perspective on aging is both positive and constructive. It views Sarasota County’s older adults as assets to and active participants in the community. In 2005, to examine the consequences of aging, the opportunities and challenges, SCOPE launched the initiative Aging: The Possibilities. Over 900 residents participated in many discussions, and presentations by experts covered a range of issues relevant to community planning for aging residents—and on their great capacity for enhancing the quality of life in Sarasota County.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Chamber of Commerce, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Building, Housing, Philanthropy/Community Foundation, Public-Private Partnerships, Transportation
photo credit Phoenix New Times
The Arizona Science Center has long engaged adult volunteers age 50+ as docents, and in
other conventional volunteer roles, but only recently the Center began to tap volunteers’ science and technology skills to enhance its programs. Jan Stonebraker, the Science Center volunteer coordinator of four years, entered the position as the Center launched a large travelling exhibition titled Body Worlds 3, an exploration of biology and anatomy.
Stonebraker identified knowledgeable volunteers to help staff the exhibition. At around the same time, the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust funded a leadership grant program, through the National Council on Aging (NCOA), to engage adult volunteers age 50+ in leadership roles. The Science Center development staff and Stonebraker designed a program that would qualify for a grant. Stonebraker found that many volunteers were retired mechanical and electrical engineers, information technology specialists, and science teachers who wanted to help the Center. It made eminent sense to use their skills to enhance educational programs.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arizona, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Engagement, Education, Intergenerational, Jobs, Life-Long Learning, Museums, Public-Private Partnerships
photo credit Lifetime Arts
Founded in 2008, Lifetime Arts promotes arts programming designed to engage older adults. A nonprofit organization, Lifetime Arts is committed to developing innovative programs which support creative aging and lifelong learning. To that end, Lifetime Arts offers a variety of services and programs. The organization is a clearinghouse for best practices; provides technical assistance, information services, and professional development to the individuals and organizations serving older adults through the arts; and helps to develop policy to enhance the quality of arts programs for older adults throughout the country.
As a service organization, Lifetime Arts developed Creative Aging in Our Communities: The Public Libraries Project, a program which demonstrates the viability and value of instructional arts programs offered in public libraries as a way to build a broad base of support for creative aging programming. The Public Libraries Project showcases the library as a center for access and learning for older adults; an “age-neutral” public space, the library is an accessible hub for older adults who are reluctant to go to senior centers, and is swiftly becoming an ideal center for programs that interest seniors.
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Terms:2012, Aging, AIP Best Practice, Arts & Culture, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Engagement, Cultural Institutions, Culture Builds Communities, Life-Long Learning, New York City, NY, Rural
photo credit Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Elder Arts Initiative joined artists, government, and service providers to engage older adults in the artistic process. Participants in the Elder Arts Initiative learned interviewing skills and techniques employed in the creative process, and had the opportunity to take part in a mentorship or pilot project of their own. Though considerable funding was curtailed in 2002, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) continues to support local arts programs in the state through grants.
The Initiative began in 1996, when the Cultural Council, the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation (an association of nursing homes), the Executive Office for Elder Affairs, and the State's Council on Aging held a series of meetings about older adults and the arts. The Cultural Council then launched the Initiative in 1997.
The National Endowment for the Arts provided funding for the Initiative through its Challenge America Program Initiative and "Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium Program." For older adults, the benefits of the Initiative included social interaction, an enhanced sense of purpose, a window for introspection, and improvement in physical health. In addition, the Initiative enabled older adults to communicate their wisdom and experience to younger generations.
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photo credit Intergeneration Orchestra of Omaha
Symbolized by a rose in full bloom and a rose bud, the Intergeneration Orchestra of Omaha (IGO Omaha) joins older, experienced musicians with young musicians, using a love of music to bridge generation gaps. The Orchestra explains that, “The rose in full bloom signifies the lifetime of experience the older musicians bring to the group, while the rosebud represents the emerging talents of our younger artists.” This intergenerational program is a win-win for all involved; the young gain the opportunity to develop their skills, while older participants are able to play the music they love well past the age of retirement. Perhaps more significantly, both young and old find support and friendship as they pursue musical excellence.
With the goal of joining two distinct generations “through the universal language of music,” the IGO of Omaha was started by Chris Gillette, current project director of the Orchestra and the director of the Community Services Division of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA), and former co-worker Cora Lee Bell. The Orchestra was initially funded by a grant from the Peter Kiewit Foundation, but has since been supported by numerous other grants, donations, memberships, fundraisers, and performance fees, and a sponsorship from ENOA. The Orchestra is run by an elected board of directors, which includes two younger and two older musicians.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arts & Culture, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Engagement, Cultural Institutions, Intergenerational, Life-Long Learning, Youth
photo credit Culture Bus
Culture Bus is at once a transportation service to arts and cultural events for older adults, and a unique treatment program for early-stage dementia patients. One of many adult day programs offered by CJE SeniorLife, in Chicago, Illinois, Culture Bus provides opportunities for socialization, creative expression, and intellectual stimulation designed to improve the quality of life and slow the effects of degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease for many older adults.
The Culture Bus emerged, in 2002, from an Alzheimer’s support group sponsored by Northwestern University’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center. Its participants were seeking more time together and opportunities for intellectual and social engagement. One member of the group suggested using a bus to enable everyone to go downtown together. The Northwestern staff immediately saw the value in this idea, and reached out to CJE, a local leader in adult-day programming, to discuss a partnership.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arts & Culture, Chicago, IL, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Health & Wellness, Mobility, Social Services, Transportation
Housed in a stunning building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, ASU Gammage at Arizona State University, one of the largest university-based theaters in the world, has been broadening its audience for many years. Its outreach extends to both immigrant and older adult audiences. Widely recognized for its work in Phoenix, ASU Gammage’s commitment becomes evident in the role played by one of its staff members: Michael Reed, the senior director of Cultural Participation and Programming, is responsible for developing and overseeing an astonishing array of performances, including explorations of theater arts for all ages, and programs highlighting the arts of various cultures.
The commitment to accommodating older adults, for example, was demonstrated while The Phantom of the Opera was at the theater for a four-week run. To better suit the preferences of older adult audiences, some performances were scheduled as matinees. Reed also explains that the house staff is very experienced in working with older adults and those who are frail or have disabilities. The staff works with ARTability, an Arizona organization that promotes accessibility to the arts for those with disabilities. Before each season begins, the staff reviews issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), though Frank Lloyd Wright’s design, while handsome, has made retrofitting ASU Gammage to meet the requirements of the ADA, and other evolving audience needs, quite difficult.
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Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arizona, Arts & Culture, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Community Engagement, Cultural Institutions, Diversity, Education, Immigration, Intergenerational, Mobility, Youth
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