Our Alliance is Expanding Its Geographic Reach and Mission
Ten years ago, a group of community organizers, aging services providers, philanthropic leaders, academics and older-adult advocates gathered at a conference to brainstorm ways to ignite an age-friendly movement in New Jersey.
The catalyzing event was sponsored by The Henry & Marilyn Taub Foundation and Grotta Fund for Older Adults, which launched a transformative grant-making program that seeded age-friendly community initiatives in 8 North Jersey towns.
Initial efforts may have started with only a handful of communities located in the catchment areas of those two foundations; but from the beginning, leaders sought to invest in creating a whole that would be greater than the sum of its parts.
The vision was not merely to support individual community initiatives as they labored alone in their mission to make towns more livable across the lifespan. Philanthropic dollars were also spent on collaborative learning exercises, research-and-data-gathering efforts, partnership-building efforts, and enhanced communications and advocacy.
The goal – which succeeded – was to amplify the work being done at the community level, in recognition that communities alone can’t address the policies and systems that impact older adults’ ability to age in their longtime communities. Change also had to be fueled at the county and state levels.
In short, the Taub Foundation and Grotta Fund spurred the birth of an alliance – Age-Friendly North Jersey, which has served as a central education and advocacy platform for the 15 community and county age-friendly initiatives working in collaboration in a 6-county region.
This summer – following a year of tremendous age-friendly community advances in the Garden State and the launch of new initiatives throughout the state- that growing alliance has been renamed “Age-Friendly NJ” – AFNJ for short.
“We invite age-friendly advocates and leaders from throughout the state to join us in our wide-ranging efforts to advance the age-friendly strategies that we know are essential to helping New Jersey better prepare for population aging,” said Dr. Cathy Rowe, executive director of New Jersey Advocates for Aging Well. “Our alliance has a successful track record of promoting learning, mentorship and idea-sharing among our local leaders. By working together, we can raise awareness and understanding of how to make New Jersey a more supportive environment for people of all ages.”
The alliance’s name change follows the start of a state-funded age-friendly grant program, the first round of which will help launch new community initiatives in 17 towns across New Jersey as well as 10 statewide projects advancing the goals of the New Jersey Department of Human Services Age-Friendly Blueprint.
Members of AFNJ have played a crucial role in advocating for the Murphy administration to develop that blueprint and grant-making program, with two veteran leaders – Dr Emily Greenfield of the Rutgers University Hub for Aging Collaboration and Janet Sharma of Age-Friendly Englewood serving as members of the statewide advisory council that helped develop the blueprint.
“From the start, we recognized that age-friendly change at the local level would need the buy-in of leaders and policymakers at the regional and state levels,” said Julia Stoumbos, director of aging-in-place programs for the Taub Foundation. “It is so gratifying to see that our efforts have contributed to a state-government-led initiative to instill age-friendly planning principles in communities and organizations throughout the state.”
Age-Friendly NJ will continue to be coordinated by NJAAW in partnership with both foundations and the Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration.
“Moving forward, we aim to propel our leaders to become even more effective advocates and agents of change, as well as valued resources for their communities” said Renie Carniol, director of the Grotta Fund.
Here’s a look at some of what can be gained from participating in the new AFNJ alliance.
Collaborative learning –AFNJ sponsors bothvirtual and in-person meetings and learning sessions throughout the year on a variety of subjects connected to the eight domains of age-friendly principles and practices and on advocacy and community organizing strategies. In addition to these group sessions, Taub and Grotta have funded opportunities for individual communities in the alliance to conduct resident surveys, age-friendly land-use assessments, walkability audits and other data-collecting efforts that help educate local leaders on the physical and social infrastructure needs of their communities.
Research and Data-Gathering –The alliance works in partnership with other organizations to study and measure the success of local age-friendly initiatives and helps fund research and study of policy and infrastructure goals. Research and evaluation partners include the Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration, New Jersey Future, and the Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey.
Partnership-Building –AFNJ works collaboratively with AARP New Jersey on efforts to enlist more communities and counties to join the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities and partners with advocacy organizations that promote affordable and supportive housing options, transportation alternatives, disability rights, dementia-friendly efforts and health care equity.
Communications and Advocacy –In addition to a website and social media pages, AFNJ has its blog, an age-friendly update that appears in NJAAW’s monthly newsletter with a readership in the thousands, and a Google Groups list-serve that reaches hundreds of local and statewide advocates. Alliance news and updates are also often distributed through individual communities’ newsletters and social media. AFNJ also helps spread the word about many statewide advocacy campaigns that dovetail with age-friendly goals, including the recently formed Lifelong Strong New Jersey campaign.
To learn more about engaging with AFNJ, contact info@agefriendlynj.org