Creating Community as We Grow Older: Innovative Grassroots Efforts

A new book, With a Little Help from Our Friends, by author Beth Baker, highlights grassroots efforts for creating aging-friendly living arrangements.  Baker, who was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio’s show Central Time on Friday, September 18, offers numerous examples of small communities that provide innovative living arrangements for seniors. Intentional communities, neighbors helping neighbors, affordable housing co-ops, and multi-generational […]

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“Livable” Community, what is it and how a county in Iowa is embracing it.

Is your community striving to become a “livable” community or have you heard the phrase “livable community for all”? Livable communities seems to be the catch phrase these days in community planning and design. A “livable” community is a term that reflects a community design in which everyone can age successfully and everyone has the […]

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Portland, OR: Inter-generational Housing

In 2011, Bridge Meadows, a community for families who have adopted foster children in Portland, OR, was created.  It is an “intentional inter-generational community” that provides reduced rent for older adults in exchange for volunteering time with adoptive families.  Old and young mix for inter-generational community activities and the “elders” provide babysitting, reading time, music […]

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Outagamie County Responds with Caregiver Café

Outagamie County educator Karen Dickrell responded to the needs of the aging population in the county with a Caregiver Coalition which launched a Caregiver Café.  Recently she shared her experience and key learning. The first piece of advice from Karen is that building a community coalition takes time and involved many different players at the […]

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Roseville, MN: Act on Alzheimer’s

At the same time we will experience the growth of an aging population we will also experience the increase in the number of people who have late life diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The City of Roseville, a St. Paul suburb is an example of a community that is preparing for these changes. […]

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Apply Valley, MN: Preparing for “Silver Tsunami”

Apply Valley, Minnesota is taking on the initiative to make their community aging-friendly. Beginning in 2012 leaders in the community have collaborated to create a consortium and  brainstorm how to make the city more inclusive toward seniors. The Apple Valley mayor, private businesses and local government leaders recently organized a 3 day workshop called “Vitalocity” with the […]

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Madison WI: Best Cities for Successful Aging

Across the country, leaders are developing exciting solutions to enable successful aging. To shine a light on the best of these programs and encourage new ones, the Milken Institute developed the first Best Cities for Successful Aging index, which measures, compares, and ranks the performance of 359 U.S. metropolitan areas in promoting and enabling successful […]

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