Fulcrums of Change Institutions

Fulcrums of Change Themes

Aging in Place

The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to double in size within the next 25 years.  By 2030, 72 million people, almost 1out of every 5 Americans, will be 65 years or older.  Thus, the country is facing the unique opportunity of having the aging community move from a lobby focused on retirement issues to a broad constituency centered on livability issues.  Local institutions can help the older population continue to contribute to society in a meaningful way and can provide resources and amenities to help them maintain an active, fulfilling lifestyle.

The Changing Workforce
As the economy and job market shift further away from manual labor and bureaucracy, the gap between those who have skill sets and those who do not grows wider.  In a 2004 report released by the RAND Corporation, the authors describe how “the key characteristic of the future workforce is skill” and how “high-level cognitive skills [such] as abstract reasoning, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration” are highly valued in the knowledge economy.  Without the skills to allow them to enter the new economy, workers are at a severe disadvantage in terms of their personal economic status and access to resources.  

Multiculturalism: Building Bridges
America is and has been a multiracial, multicultural society with a constant influx of immigrants from all parts of the world that add to the nation’s richness.  Recently, America’s minority population topped more than 100 million people, accounting for 1 in 3 U.S. residents and totaling more than the whole population of all but 11 countries worldwide.  The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050, roughly half of the U.S. will belong to a racial or ethnic minority.  Programs focused around cultural diversity can be used as tools to improve relations between different racial groups and build community pride and sense of place, which in turn brings about greater investment by the community itself in directing its future.

Neighborhood Reinvestment
“Distressed” communities can be characterized by conditions ranging from concentration of poor housing to lack of public services to the feelings of helplessness, but are also defined by the physical, social, and economic variables that determine the quality of life.  By improving these variables or eliminating barriers created by the physical, social and economic factors in communities, local institutions can improve the variety of conditions that plague low-income, at-risk communities.  Effective asset-based community development can result in physical neighborhood improvements, small business development, the creation of affordable housing, and open community dialogue to create neighborhood pride and empower the community to help direct its own future.

Creative City: Downtown Alive
All across the nation, downtowns have been the focus of revitalization efforts, offering amenities and a lifestyle that are attracting a growing segment of society.  Successful downtowns are the creative pulse of great cities. People trek across the country to New York City just to see five streets intersect at Times Square. There is a certain draw and attractiveness of vibrant downtowns. These nodes offer ease of transportation, built infrastructure, waterfronts, and other crucial amenities that give urban centers a competitive advantage over other development models. Design and redefinition of current institutions to become downtown anchors stimulates this type of urban renewal. Downtown anchor institutions of all kinds play a crucial role in contributing to the vibrancy, programming, and development direction of the community.

Youth and Families
American households are changing.  With increasing numbers of single-parent families, the nuclear family stereotype describes fewer and fewer homes.  Thirty-five years ago, 40 percent of all households consisted of a husband, wife and children.  Today that figure has fallen to about 28 percent.  The explanation?  A rising number of households are headed by only one parent.  In 2005, nearly 13 million families were single-parent households, the vast majority of which are headed by single mothers.   Simultaneously, education budgets have shrunk and the teaching focus has shifted.  Today’s youth are tomorrow’s workforce.  There is huge economic potential in providing adequate support services that allow families to remain stable parts of the workforce and youth to develop the skills needed to contribute to the local economy.

Health & Wellness
A major part of community sustainability is the health and overall wellness of its residents on both an individual and community-wide level.  A glance at any health page in a newspaper will show alarming statistics about Americans’ lack of understanding and attention to the health and wellness of their minds and bodies.  As Kenneth L. Gladish, Ph.D., national executive director of YMCA of the USA, puts it, “America has unwittingly created an unhealthy society for our children…over nine million U.S. children [are] overweight—more than double the percentage in 1980 according to Centers for Disease Control.”  Without serious measures in place, communities are threatened by all manner of potentially degrading health-related problems.  If nothing is done, today’s children could be the first generation to date to have a shorter life span than their parents.