CCEG: Making Our Community Aging-Friendly / Community Action Plan

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Community Action Plan :

CCEG believes that aging friendly communities are places where:

»	All generations are included, integrated and respected.

»	Policies and programs sensitively address all ages and cultures.

»	Neighborhood centers welcome all generations.

»	Adequate infrastructure is accessible for people of all ages and abilities.

»	Mentors advocate and provide assistance for those who need help.

»	Successful programs are identified and replicated.

CCEG’s 2010 Strategic Plan for Community Action continues the focus on the following areas:

»	Healthcare and Wellness

»	Housing

»	Transportation

»	Neighborhoods and Communities

The Plan lists the key goals in each area and the strategic actions to achieve them. At the heart of the Plan is the belief that CCEG working together with the people of Contra Costa can create a “cascade of partnerships” that will work to make our communities aging friendly.

2010 Strategic Plan for Community Action

Healthcare and Wellness

Goals

»	Address the isolation of seniors.

»	Promote services that assist individuals with planning for all stages of life.

»	Support education about healthy aging for culturally diverse populations.

Strategic Actions

»	Explore alternative approaches for isolated seniors to socially connect from home like the Senior Center Without Walls, a program sponsored by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Oakland and offering telephone group activities for elders throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and make sure that county seniors are made aware of them. Continue working with the Senior Center Without Walls to develop and present monolingual and other telephone sessions, including the development of an Alcoholics Anonymous type program for homebound seniors who want to get and stay sober.

»	Continue partnership and work with the California Department of Health Care Services and the Rehabilitation Services of Northern California on the California Community Transitions Demonstration Project. The goals of this project, funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, are to improve and make changes to long-term care delivery systems and to ensure that residents of nursing and other health care facilities are aware of their choices about long-term care services and options to transition from these facilities back to community living in their homes or other places of their choosing.

Housing

Goals

»	Motivate public and private entities to develop housing that is truly affordable for all generations.

»	Involve and empower seniors to become part of the community planning process.

Strategic Actions

Continue to monitor, early in the development cycle, proposed housing developments in the county using CCEG’s “Endorsement Criteria” as a general benchmark for ensuring that a development is “aging-friendly” and its “Development Guidelines for New Senior Housing” if the project is for senior housing, and communicate any concerns to appropriate county decision makers before final approvals are granted.

Transportation

Goals

»	Advance affordable, safe, seamless and accessible, countywide transportation for seniors.

»	Promote responsible land use and transportation policy decisions by planners and policymakers.

Strategic Actions

»	Continue to form alliances and partnerships with transportation stakeholders in the county (government, nonprofit, and faith based) with a focus on filling the gaps between current transportation services mostly provided by government and those needed transportation services not adequately provided.

	Continue to monitor transportation developments in the county using CCEG’s “Endorsement Criteria” as a guide to educate decision makers (board of supervisors, city councils, planning commissions, transit authorities, etc.) on their impacts on seniors prior to formal decisions being made.

»	As a stakeholder, continue to work with the other members of the Senior Mobility Action Council (SMAC) to develop approaches to keeping older drivers driving, as long as they can do so safely, and to facilitate the transition of those who can no longer drive safely to other forms of transportation.

Neighborhoods and Communities

Goals

»	Increase outreach to fully integrate all generations, cultures, religions and language groups in community involvement.

»	Raise awareness and break down stereotypes and myths about aging and encourage older adults to become involved in neighborhood and community civic affairs.

»	Support the enhancement of safety and security in Contra Costa homes and neighborhoods.

Strategic Actions

»	Continue presenting throughout the county a newly instituted series of workshops entitled “Participation on Boards & Commissions”. The broad objective of these workshops is to increase the number of seniors involved in issues impacting the elderly by making them aware of the numerous opportunities to volunteer for boards and commissions or other organized bodies that address these issues. The fundamental premise is that the more seniors involved on the issues important to them, the better.

»	As a stakeholder, continue to partner with other county stakeholders in the fight against elder abuse, the neglect, exploitation or “painful or harmful” mistreatment of seniors. It can involve physical violence, psychological abuse, isolation, abandonment, false imprisonment, a caregiver’s neglect, or the unlawful taking of a senior’s money or property.

»	Continue and expand the Myth Buster Campaign, which seeks to educate the citizens of the county by countering false stereotypes of aging and by debunking myths about older adults.

»	Continue and expand the LEARN Program (Library Education and Resource Network, a partnership of the libraries, senior centers, the County Area on Aging and CCEG). The objective of the learn program is bring to Contra Costa residents of different cultures and languages together to learn about the resources available to them and to encourage them to become involved in the community.”