AIP Best Practice

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.