May 6, 2016
New Report from OWL Highlights Models of Aging-Friendly Communities
EDGE READ TIME: 3 MIN.
"Aging in Community" has long been an Older Women's League (OWL) goal; this has become a much more important issue as the world ages. In OWL's 2016 Mother's Day report, we explore some of the major models for becoming a generally more aging-friendly community -- how they are organized, governed, managed, and funded. Many services are funded by taxes, others by philanthropic endeavors, and some by consumers. Each of the models has benefits, and challenges.
This OWL report recognizes the significant successes of the past decades: more individuals are surviving to be old, and very old. We have, in all developed nations, an aging population. This fact presents multiple challenges at a personal, societal, and global level.� Both challenges and opportunities arise from changes in demographics, family constellation and functioning, economic structures, and technologies.
The aging population has resulted in a widespread need to create Aging-Friendly Communities. There are multiple models for bringing about Aging-Friendly Communities. The Mother's Day Report focuses on strategies for promoting healthy aging in community:
The emerging goal must be to work on collaborating across groups and organizations who are trying to contribute something toward aging well. Collaboration is much more difficult than working within one silo of service, but because we need to be more efficient in using scarce resources we need to work together. A wide variety of public-private partnership has been developed. We have many model-projects, but relatively few have been sustained.
Future needs focus on community planning, to create not only aging-friendly communities, but dementia-friendly communities. Generally, the call is for cross-sector collaboration, so that services are no longer planned and carried out within silos.
Join OWL for a Community Forum on "Aging in Community: Challenges and Opportunities for Women" from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 at 5225 S. Cottage Grove, Hyde Park, Chicago. To register, call 773-363-1933 or email Board President Margaret Huyck at [email protected]