Age Friendly Evanston update 1.5.15

1. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
AGE FRIENDLY
EVANSTON!
January 05, 2015
Age Friendly Evanston! Initiatives Annual Update
Christina Ferraro
Assistant Director of Community Services

2. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
AGE FRIENDLY EVANSTON!
o Evanston
 a place for all ages
 a community where older adults can live
LONGER, BETTER, HEALTHIER lives
 a place for all to grow up and grow old!
o Age Friendly is a new paradigm
 encourages healthy aging
 not a process to complain about aging

3. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
- This program is an international effort to help
prepare for a global demographic trend: the
rapid aging of populations.

4. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
WHO NETWORK OF AGE FRIENDLY CITIES
IN USA
Austin, TX
Bowling Green, KY
Brookhaven Brookline, MA
Chemung Co, NY
Chicago, IL
Des Moines, IA
Great Neck Plaza, NY
Honolulu, HI
Los Altos, CA
Macon-Bibb County, GA
New York, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
Roseville, CA
St. Louis County, MO
Los Altos Hills, CA
Washington DC
Wichita, KS

5. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
AGE FRIENDLY EVANSTON! TASKFORCE
Appointed by Mayor Tisdahl in December 2013, the nine (9) member
taskforce is developing the action plan to ensure Evanston is an Age
Friendly community
1. Chairperson, Susan Cherco
2. Transportation, Helen Gagel
3. Social Participation, Jo-Ann Cromer
4. Respect & Social Inclusion, Dorothy Strong
5. Housing, Wayne Heimbach
6. Outdoor Spaces & Buildings, Susan Canter
7. Communication & Information, Martha Holmes
8. Community & Health Services, John Barfield
9. Civic Participation & Employment, Isidro Lucas

6. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
HOW IS THIS BEING ACCOMPLISHED?
- Assess current age friendliness
- Ask community members: “What affects your ability to live your best life in
Evanston?”
- Develop three-year city-wide action plan for implementation based on the
objectives of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Age Friendly
Communities Program

7. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
PROMOTING AN "AGE-IN-EVERYTHING"
LENS ACROSS ALL ASPECTS OF CITY LIFE
- Preliminary proposals may include linking to other city plans
- EPLAN (Evanston Project for the Local Assessment of Needs)
- ECAP (Evanston Climate Action Plan)
- multi-modal mobility plan and other global movements
- Walkable Neighborhoods
- Sustainable Communities
- Complete Streets

8. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
COMMUNITY INPUT PROCESS
- Community outreach
- Data collection efforts
- Community meetings
- Surveys – print, electronic
- Roundtable discussions
- Focus groups
- Working groups
- Additional survey being prepared for distribution in the spring
- Results of the survey will be analyzed and will lay the groundwork for the
effort moving forward

9. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
HOUSING
This committee of nearly 20 individuals
 Land trusts
 Shared housing
 Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)
 Supportive housing (similar to assisted living)
 Copin House affordable senior housing for grandparents raising
grandchildren in the Woodlawn community
 Center on Halsted LGBT-friendly affordable senior housing in Lakeview
 Design Evanston Charrette Process

10. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
OUTDOOR SPACES & BUILDINGS
This committee of nearly 10 individuals
 Park Tour
 Adopt-a-Park program
 Indoor walking options for year round walking
 Benches in all parks that don’t have them already and in business districts
throughout Evanston
 Evanston Bike Safety

11. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
TRANSPORTATION
This committee of nearly 10 individuals
 Critical Incident Reports
 Biggest need is medical visit transportation
 Current design to get in/out Evanston not around Evanston
 East / west travel is difficult
 East of Chicago Ave has lack of transportation
 Bike Lanes

12. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
SOCIAL PARTICIPATION
CIVIC PARTICIPATION & EMPLOYMENT
RESPECT & SOCIAL INCLUSION
These three committees are working together due to much overlap
Their preliminary findings …..
 Need more information about activities (communication)
 Need to get there (transportation)
 Educate youth to respect older adults
 Employment: more for young people!

13. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
COMMUNITY SUPPORT & HEALTH SERVICES
 Outreach at St. Nicholas Church, Evanston
 Established Advisory Committee* to Community Support & Health Services
to establish links with health care and social service providers
 Duplication of services vs greater need
 Hospital senior services moved from Evanston
 More geriatricians needed in Evanston
 Presence Health accepts Medicaid only for Psychiatry
- * Ellen Browne, Jessica Feldman, Sandi Johnson and Connie Wood

14. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION
Technology is not for all … yet!
 311, texting, website
 Levy Center
 Foster Club
 Residential Boards
 Evanston Roundtable
 Evanston Review
 Evanston Now
 Evanston Public Library
 Word of mouth

15. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
SCHEDULE
Years 1 and 2: July 2014 - 2016
ASSESSMENT AND DEVELOP PLAN
The survey will be out in the spring
This time next year we should be close to having a draft action plan
Years 3, 4 and 5: July 2016 – 2019
IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
Oversee the implementation of the Age Friendly Action Plan approved
by the City Council.
Continual improvement

16. Parks, Recreation and Community Services
SUMMARY
 Making progress
 Great foundation with dedicated group
 greater awareness of aging in the community
 Bottom-up approach
 Spring survey more quantitative data for sufficient recommendations
 Spring 2016 action plan to City Council
 Summer 2016 action plan to World Health Organization