The initiative is right on schedule - teams in the community are developing recommendations for creating an elder-friendly community related to affordable housing and home modifications, caregiving, and transportation. The teams which are addressing awareness of services and social and civic engagement have set their first meetings in April and May, and three more groups are forming soon - community-based services, access to care, and physical activity. Read on for complete details...

Affordable Housing and Home Modifications

The Vision to End Homelessness is developing community recommendations that ensure the sufficiency and adequacy of housing in Kent County for all populations. Click here for more information.

Caregiving Work Group

CCFL is working in concert with the Caregiver Resource Network to develop recommendations that address support for elder caregivers. Click here for a complete update - including information about the next meeting.

Transportation Work Group

The Kent County Emergency Needs Task Force Transportation Subcommittee created time on their agenda to discuss the needs of older adults and to develop recommendations. Click here for a complete update - including information about the next meeting.

Awareness of Services

The CCFL Awareness of Services work group is addressing elder knowledge of services - especially for those who are isolated, of low income, or people of color - in order to ensure all elders can access needed information and available resources. Click here for a complete update - including meeting information and resource links.

Social and Civic Engagement

The CCFL Social and Civic Engagement work group is addressing the desire of older adults to maintain connections, to remain active through volunteer or paid activities, and to have opportunities to share their experience, creativity and wisdom in order to ensure that Kent County benefits from the contributions of older persons. Click here for more information.

CCFL Meeting Dates

For a complete listing of all upcoming CCFL meeting dates click here.

Rabbi Lewis Receives State Appointment

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has appointed CCFL core council member Rabbi Albert M. Lewis to the Michigan Council on Services to the Aging (CSA). The CSA advocates for older persons and advises the Governor, Legislature and Office of Services to the Aging on aging priorities and policies as well as federal and state programs for senior adults. They also review and approve state, federal and other grants administered by the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging. Congratulations, Rabbi Lewis!

April Core Council Meeting

On April 21, Core Council members will review the progress of the first five work groups and begin crafting a vision for a community for a lifetime. For more information, contact Kate Luckert at 454-1751.

Local Streets Are Getting Meaner

Planning for an "elder-friendly community" often includes strategies to design "walkable communities" where older adults do not have to depend on driving a car or even taking public transportation to get around. But between 1994 and 2003, pedestrian safety in the Grand Rapids - Muskegon - Holland metro area declined by nearly 40% according to a recent national study. Only four other metro areas in the U.S. experienced a greater rate of decline in pedestrian safety than we did. Read more...

Boomer News

New Survey Reveals Boomer Expectations

A recent New Retirement Survey by Merrill Lynch with Harris Interactive and gerontoligist Ken Dychtwald of Age Wave polled 3,448 people, age 40 to 58. The survey found:

• Boomers plan to reinvent retirement. They see themselves transitioning into retirement over a 6-10 year period, starting at age 64, in which they shift the balance of work, education and leisure. Of the 76% of boomers who plan to work in retirement, the majority (56%) plan to launch into a completely new career in their early sixties.
• More men see retirement as a time to enhance primary relationships, while more women plan to be externally focused and seek more community involvement.
• 33% of the women report that both spouses share responsibility for saving and investing, up from 5% of women in the same age group in 1962.

Help Create a Public Policy Agenda for the Baby Boomers

The first of five statewide forums to discuss a long term public policy agenda to meet baby boomer needs will be held in Grand Rapids on April 21, 2005 from 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, the session will focus on economic issues, including employment and workplace issues, direct care workers, retirement savings and Social Security, etc. Subsequent forums will focus on community, health, and caregiving. The recommendations developed in these forums will be forwarded to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging national meeting. Pre-registration is required and the deadline for the April 21 forum in Grand Rapids is April 7, 2005. For details and to register, go to www.miseniors.net

Learning Opportunities Calendar

Click here for a listing of upcoming forums and conferences throughout the State of Michigan.