Overview
Our Mission
To ensure Kent County is a community that optimizes quality of life, independence and choice for older persons and all residents through collaborative planning and community action.
Our Guiding Principles
Creating Community for a Lifetime will promotes a holistic, successful aging perspective in the community.
Creating Community for a Lifetime will increase community capacity for successful aging through an empowerment model.
Creating Community for a Lifetime will develop a process for continuous community learning regarding successful aging.
Our Vision
Kent County will be an elder-friendly community that addresses basic needs, optimizes physical and mental health and well-being, promotes social and civic engagement, and maximizes independence.
Our Strategy
Creating Community for a Lifetime is a long-term, broad-based, community-wide initiative built on a foundation of community data-gathering and analysis and imbedded into the existing network of agencies addressing aging issues. The approach includes:
- Addressing currently identified issues while also creating a mechanism for long-term planning to address future issues.
- Offering a variety of opportunities for involvement of community organizations and individuals.
- Building on current organizational competencies
- Capitalizing on the energy, time, experience, and financial resources of older adults to impact community betterment.
Our Measures
We measure success of Kent County addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by an aging community using the following benchmarks:
Basic needs of older adults are being met.
- Appropriate and affordable housing is available.
- Housing can accommodate mobility and safety.
- The neighborhood is livable and safe.
- People have enough nutritional food.
- Assistance services are available and residents know how to access them.
Social and civic engagement is promoted.
- Residents maintain connections with family, neighbors, and friends.
- Civic, cultural, religious, and recreational activities include older residents.
- Community residents help and trust each other.
Physical and mental health and well being is optimized.
- Community promotes and provides access to necessary and preventive health services.
- Opportunities for physical activity are available and used.
- Obstacles to use of necessary medical care are removed.
- Palliative care services are available and accessible.
Independence is maximized.
- Appropriate transportation is accessible and affordable.
- The community service system enables people to live comfortably and safely at home.
- Caregivers are mobilized to complement the formal service system.
Our Role
- Mobilize civic leadership
- Leverage resources to support improvements
- Support research and development of best practices
- Advocate for policy change with key local, state, and federal policymakers
- Facilitate a community agenda for addressing an aging community
- Convene potential partners working on CCFL strategies and recommendations
- Monitor community progress in becoming more elder-friendly
- Review progress on each strategy
Our Governance
A 35 member Core Council governs the direction of the initiative. The Core Council is responsible for establishing the strategic direction and priorities of the initiative and ensuring community action on recommendations developed.
Our Leadership
The initiative is administered through a partnership between the Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan and the Grand Rapids Community Foundation.