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Age-Friendly Meeting Focuses on Making Albany Friendly for People of All Ages

On Tuesday, September 5, 2017, nearly 30 people gathered for the second Age Friendly- Albany County meeting at Cohoes Senior Center. Several individuals made presentations to help Albany reach the goal of keeping its older adults at home and engaged in their communities for as long as possible.
Judi England, RN, Senior Health Education Coordinator for the JFS Albany NNORC, discussed her recent blog post “What’s in a name? – “Age-Friendly”? Judi’s blog is called Holistic Health and is featured on the Times Union website. Program Director Thomas Scarff discussed developing an action plan around the 8 domains that make up an Age-Friendly community (i.e. housing, transportation, social participation, respect and social inclusion, outdoor spaces & buildings, work and civic engagement, communication & information, and community and health services). County Executive, Daniel P. McCoy, joined in on the discussion and expressed his commitment to this initiative as well as his enthusiasm for the future. Keith Chan, PhD, MSW, from the University at Albany School of Social Welfare, presented on gathering and interpreting data from both stakeholder and residents in Albany County to assist in creating an action plan for the initiative. The Mayor of the City of Cohoes, Mayor Shawn Morse, discussed how Cohoes is already engaged in making changes to the city to make it more Age-Friendly. Co-Chair of Age Friendly- Albany County, Michael J. Burgees, reviewed the goals of small work groups to be broken down based on the eight domains. Patricia J. Binzer, EdD, Co-Chair of Age Friendly- Albany County, presented on the role of the Community Council to ensure that residents are given a voice in this process.
At the close of the meeting it was decided that the next steps are to complete a needs assessment and then to develop an action plan moving forward. Small work groups will be meeting again in October based on their interest and expertise in the eight domains.  For more information about Age Friendly Albany, visit https://tinyurl.com/yat4wfwl.

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