Data collected over the past year shows that seniors in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region are fairly evenly divided when it comes to whether they think the area is a good place to age. Now, grant funding headed to 11 local municipalities will help officials better support the aging population.
The Age-Friendly Communities Initiative, led by the Greenfield-based nonprofit LifePath, disseminated a survey based on an extensive questionnaire about aging crafted by the AARP. They received almost 2,000 responses, and are now ready to develop an action plan based on the information collected.
“We had a great turnout of responses. It was twice as many responses as our goal,” said Meg Ryan, regional public health nurse with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG).
The survey asked questions about housing, transportation, social environment and health services. Each question asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with their access to each category.
Among notable results in the survey data, half of respondents report there is no public transportation in their area, 92% of respondents say it is important for them to stay in their town as they age, and 81% of respondents report they lack access to or don’t know about mental health support in their area.
Looking to create working groups whose work will be informed by the survey results, FRCOG Community Health Program Manager Rachel Stoler applied for a grant through Mass in Motion, a statewide organization that promotes opportunities for healthy eating and active living. Eleven municipalities — Colrain, Leyden, Greenfield, Erving, Orange, Montague, Deerfield, Leverett, Sunderland, Whately and Gill — have signed onto the grant. Each community will receive just over $4,000 per year for the next three years to create working groups tasked with developing action plans. These groups will be different from councils on aging that already exist in many towns.
“We are trying to make the region a better place to live as we age,” Ryan said. By 2030, Franklin County is expected to have 30% of its residents 65 or older. “It is happening across the county, but here it is faster,” Ryan continued.
This money is provided to get people who typically are not part of the civic process involved. It can be used to compensate people for their labor in the working group or pay for refreshments at meetings. Part of this push to attract people not typically involved in planning is part of Mass in Motion’s Health Equity initiative.
Mass in Motion also uses a “Leading with Race” framework. Even though Franklin County and the North Quabbin region have only a small population of people of color, Ryan and Stoler explained in a Colrain Selectboard meeting that this framework can still be used to prompt organizers to ask, “Who benefits,” “Who is harmed,” and “What are the unintended consequences?”
These working groups will develop location-specific action plans based on the data from the survey. Ryan made sure to note that these groups will dive deep into the data, and said that many of the questions are easily taken out of context if the entire survey is not studied. Each member of these working groups will attend a regional health equity training to learn how to move forward with their work.
“They will look at the root causes of the most pertinent issues in their community,” Stoler said. “Then they will identify some priority strategies and look for capacity to implement those strategies. If they need funding, we will be helping identify where they can get funding.”
Stoler explained many cities and towns already have age-friendly initiatives. She said she hopes these new working groups and the Mass in Motion grant can assist with work that is already happening. She also hopes towns will collaborate in their efforts where it makes sense, such as if towns share a senior center.
“Some solutions can be small and inexpensive, like putting a bench in the park so someone can rest, or getting closed captions on town meetings to allow someone with hearing loss to participate,” Ryan explained. “But it would be great to get the big stuff done, too.”
While about 25 towns in the region are signed on to be age-friendly communities, only 11 of the towns are Mass in Motion grant recipients. The towns who are not part of the grant are still welcome to create working groups, however they will need to find other funds for their work. Meanwhile, LifePath also created a steering committee to examine the data regionwide that will work in tandem with the location-specific groups.
“The steering committee will be making regional priorities,” said LifePath’s Age-Friendly Program Manager Carol Foote.
“It is often presented as a problem,” Ryan said about the region’s quickly growing aging population. “It’s not — we are living longer and healthier lives. This just means we need to look at our infrastructure, and we need to find ways to connect easier and be more accessible.”
Bella Levavi can be reached at blevavi@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.