New Jersey’s Age-Friendly Movement seeks to work across boundaries of all types. So this year’s Older Americans Month theme could not have been a more fitting tie-in to our community-building efforts: Aging Unbound.
2023 marked the 60th anniversary of the commemoration of May as Older Americans Month.
For this milestone, the chosen theme was meant to emphasize freedom and the diverse range of aging experiences, and indeed, community leaders in the Age-Friendly North Jersey alliance helped plan and lead a diverse range of community events and activities.
- There were social gatherings, including an ice cream social in Fair Lawn, an older adult breakfast in Ridgewood, a Mother’s Day social in Livingston, a senior prom in Englewood, and an Open House event at all of Bergen County’s senior center nutrition sites.
- There were events that promoted safety and wellbeing, including a safety walk-and-talk in Elizabeth, a fraud prevention workshop in Garfield, a wellness fair in Maplewood, a new class teaching balance exercises in Teaneck, and a class on driving with smart technology in Livingston.
- And there were events celebrating the diverse roles of older adults – such as an Aging Unbound photo exhibit in Ridgewood – and others that promoted intergenerational bonds – such as a community walk in Elizabeth, an intergenerational arts program in West Orange, and an intergenerational prom in Somerset County.
The Administration on Community Living – the federal agency that plans each year’s Older Americans Month theme – had urged this year’s commemorations to communicate that older adults should embrace the opportunity to change, explore the rewards of growing older, stay engaged in their communities, and form relationships.
The wide variety of Older Americans Month events in northern New Jersey certainly conveyed those messages, but as importantly, they also helped demonstrate the value of age-friendly work in communities and counties.
Age-friendly leaders helped plan events that engaged a wide range of community residents and partners – involving not just older adults or those who work in the field of aging. In doing so, age-friendly leaders helped increase older adults’ visibility and highlight the issue of aging in community.
The Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration, whose Age-Friendly Research Team helps lead and evaluate the work of Age-Friendly North Jersey, has conducted research on the role that community events can play in furthering age-friendly-community-building goals.
That research demonstrated that, in addition to immediately benefiting older adults and local organizational partners, community events can have longer-term strategic value. They can focus more attention on the needs and desires of a community’s older residents and to the ways in which age-friendly progress can yield a better community for all.
“Community events can and should be teachable moments,” said Dr. Emily Greenfield, an author of that study and Professor of Social Work. “Dedicating an entire month to celebrate aging and older adults is a tremendous opportunity to impart the values and principles of the age-friendly community movement.”
Older Americans Month ended May 31st, but our alliance’s efforts to educate and advocate continue year-round.