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Our May 2013 Creative Aging Event
Places with a Purpose: Communities for a Lifetime addressed what a Lifetime Community is and how Indiana communities can work toward becoming the kind of places where people want to live from their youth to old age.
Architects M. Scott Ball and Zachary Benedict, as well as Health By Design's Kim Irwin also spoke at the event. For more information on the presenters and our sponsors for this event, read or download this flyer with event details. We especially appreciate Ivy Tech's Katrina Jones for her help in organizing the event and registrations.
If you'd like to read about other May 2013 Creative Aging Festival activities in the Bloomington Area, visit the City's Commission on Aging page for event brochures.
Community AGEnda Contract Awarded to Center
We have $150,000 to help Indiana communities prepare for the massive growth of the older adult population, thanks to the Pfizer Foundation and Grantmakers in Aging. Efforts will be concentrated in Huntington and Indianapolis, where staff will offer consultation and support to enhance the growth of "naturally occurring retirement communities" or NORCs.
We will encourage local planning efforts to incorporate age-friendly perspective, inclusive of all ability levels. Also, community leaders and policymakers in Bloomington will explore developing incentives to encourage age-friendly neighborhood development. You can read more about this exciting project here or here. We're thrilled that more groups are recognizing the need for lifetime communities.
Livable Communities Concept Gathering Momentum
In the fall of 2012, our Center moved to the national forefront of the "elder-friendly" communities movement. Worldwide, cities continued to join the "age-friendly community" movement led by the World Health Organization.
In Indiana, the relevance of the age-friendly community concept to other audiences, especially people with disabilities, led to a broader focus called "lifetime communities" (reflected, in part, by the re-naming of our Aging Indiana web site to LifetimeCommunities.org). The Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, in particular, invested heavily in activities designed to promote awareness of the concept through workshops, publications, and, notably, the December 4-5, 2012, Governor’s Conference. Richard Jackson, M.D., M.P.H., of the UCLA School of Public Health and author of Designing Healthy Communities, featured in a major PBS series on the topic in the spring of 2012, spoke at the conference.
CAC continued to provide leadership to the Indiana lifetime communities movement. Our director, Dr. Phil Stafford, helped coach Community for a Lifetime initiatives in Linton, Huntington and Valparaiso, Indiana. With support from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, these communities engaged in participatory planning and prepared implementation plans to present to the state agency in September 2012. The communities received funding to help make structural changes to their cities that opened up public spaces to people of all ages and abilities.
In May, Dr. Stafford provided a plenary address at the International Making Cities Livable Conference in Portland, Oregon, and he will chair extended sessions on age-friendly communities at the American Society on Aging meetings in March, 2013, and at the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Manchester, England, in August, 2013. He also serves as a consultant to the upcoming documentary titled Coming of Age in an Aging America, produced by Vital Pictures for public television.
CAC at the Governor's Conference
Our staff ran the Story Tent and spoke at several sessions of the 2012 Conference for People with Disabilities and Community Advocates. With a theme of "Community Connections", the conference focused on topics right up our alley, so we're played a big role there.
Jennie Todd and Sharon Baggett, Associate Professor of Aging Studies at University of Indianapolis, facilitated "Design for Building and Supporting Livable Communities" twice on December 4. They explored the latest design principles in the broadest sense, including streets, housing, landscape and community spaces.
Jane Harlan-Simmons participated as a panelist for the December 4 session, “The Intersection Where Art and Culture Meet,” which was a look at how arts and community leaders could work together to create sustainable communities through creative economy development.
Director Phil Stafford moderated a panel comprised of Mayors, planners, and business and arts leaders on December 5, reviewing Indiana Livable Community Initiatives.
Finally, everyone, including Peggy Holtz and our good friends Steve Savage and Ken Oguss, staffed the annual Story Tent project throughout the day on December 4, collecting stories about community living.
Aging in Place Training
Dr. Stafford presented "Aging in Place" on October 11, 2012, in Indianapolis on behalf of the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development. The training was made possible in part by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
Communities for a Lifetime Initiative Moves Forward
Spring, 2012 - With support from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, three communities to participate in a new planning grant program were announced on March 1, 2012. This program – Communities for a Lifetime – will support Huntington, Linton and Valparaiso with small grants to identify a district, conduct assessments, and engage people of all ages and abilities in creating a more livable environment that supports social, mental and physical health, and independence across the lifespan.
The three communities will have approximately 6 months to conduct their planning activities and develop an implementation plan for additional funding from the IHCDA and other potential sources. Eligible projects will include affordable housing, home repair and modification and economic development activities. The Governor’s Planning Council intends to support training for planning advocates among the older adult and disability community.
The Center on Aging and Community has been working to foster this program for several years. Director Phil Stafford and Research Associate Jennie Todd will be providing significant technical assistance to the grantee communities. For more information about the program, write Dr. Stafford at staffor@indiana.edu or visit the program announcement page here.
New and Improved ArtsWORK Indiana Website
ArtsWORKIndiana.org debuted a new look and new user-friendly design in the Spring of 2012. Along with a face lift, the site made navigation and content changes so it would be easier to find
and use information. There continues to be plenty of art by Indiana's visual
artists with disabilities throughout the ArtsWORK site pages.
The remodeling
of the website was made possible, in part, with support from the
Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a
federal agency, as well as by the Indiana Institute on Disability and
Community.
Silo-Busting Podcast with CAC Director
The Center on Aging and Community’s Director, Dr. Phil Stafford, took part in a Community Matters discussion on Silo-busting in December, 2011. We all tend to create silos in our life - places that are our own domain and from which we rarely like to venture.
Communities also have silos -- many address youth issues and elder issues separately, and both are separated from issues like housing, transportation, education, and volunteerism. One way to break down community silos might be to focus on building communities for all ages. The podcast is at the bottom of the discussion page and can be downloaded. There are call notes available as well.
Bloomington Creative Aging Festival
Back for a second year, this festival coincided with Older Americans Month, and our Center was again involved in several events. Visit our Creative Aging Festival 2012 web page for a run-down of all our related activities.
The City of Bloomington Commission on Aging invited the community to celebrate creativity and our aging population. There's a beautiful full-color brochure of events here, and a master list here. All events were accessible for people who use wheelchairs. We had a terrific turn-out!
Building Leadership Series 2
Spring of 2012, past participants of our Building Leadership Series (a series of workshops for adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities) have been coming together again for a second set of workshops. They’re learning about and discussing topics such as relationships and intimacy, civic engagement, and healthy living. Sponsored by Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services and the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, these workshops provide an opportunity for participants to learn in a safe, highly interactive environment with their peers. For more information contact Jennie Todd at jeptodd@indiana.edu and visit our Building Leadership Series 2 page.
ArtsWORK Meetings
ArtsWORK Indiana formed a regional affiliate for South Central Indiana with monthly meetings in Bloomington. You can still join the group to promote supportive networking and build arts career-related skills. Not only is there the enticement of refreshments at these meetings, but you could make new friends as well!
Bloomington Fiber Artist Martina Celerin spoke at a meeting on "Transitioning into an Art Career", pictured above. Interested in attending a regional meeting? Visit the ArtsWORK web site for more information.
Story Tent on the Go in 2011
Our staff were kept hopping last year, taking the Story Tent to several events and locations in Indiana. People's stories on a wide range of topics -- including food, senior living, autism and school bullying -- were recorded and turned into short YouTube video clips.
To view the results of our Story Tent activities, please visit our Video Center for playlists and more information. We look forward to meeting more of you and gathering your stories in years to come!
Stafford Training - Aging in Place
Phil organized and presented at the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development (IACED)'s two-day training on Aging in Place this past September.
Attendees ended the training with a basic knowledge of research, programs,
policy, and best practice leading to more livable communities for older
adults. Topics included:• Housing and mobility
• Health and wellness
• Informed citizenship and civic engagement
• Social and cultural life
• Zoning and codes for livable communities
• Health and wellness
• Informed citizenship and civic engagement
• Social and cultural life
• Zoning and codes for livable communities
Aging in Place took place September 6 and 7 in Indianapolis. This is the second year that IACED has asked Phil to present this training.
Dr. Stafford Conference Presentation
Phil discussed Aging and Developmental Disabilities: A Family (and Community!) Affair
at the 4th Annual Mid-America Institute on Aging conference, held August 11-12. If you'd like to learn more about this multi-disciplinary
gerontology conference for nurses, social workers, older adults, lay
persons, and professionals working in the field of gerontology, visit the conference web page or browse the conference brochure. Creative Aging Festival
Inaugural Creative Aging Festival in Bloomington: The month of May is Older Americans Month. The City of Bloomington Commission on Aging and the Center on Aging and Community invited the community to participate in a month-long, city-wide celebration honoring our elders and their creative contributions to our community.
The calendar of events and more information on the May 2011 festival activities are still available from the City of Bloomington.
Food for Thought Exhibit Visited Bloomington
CAC proudly sponsored the Food for Thought traveling exhibit's visit to Bloomington in May, 2011. Visitors could see, touch, taste, hear and reminisce about Indiana food culture through the artifacts, images, hands-on learning tools, and oral history at the Food for Thought booth. A historical and contemporary look at Indiana’s food culture, as well as interactive opportunities for Hoosiers of all ages, was experienced by those who visited the exhibit.
Food for Thought, part of the city-wide Creative Aging Festival in May,was sponsored by our Center and partially funded by Indiana Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibit was housed at Bloomington's City Hall Atrium, 401 N. Morton Street, May 7 - 20, 2011.
Stafford Conference Presentation
Our director, Phil Stafford, presented on The Aging Workforce with the University of Indianapolis' Ellen Miller at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce's 47th Annual Conference, focusing on the Changing Face of Human Resources. For more information on the conference, you can visit the Chamber web site or check out the conference brochure.
Gray is Good
Dr. Phil Stafford wrote a companion op-ed piece to an Indianapolis Star article about embracing Indiana's senior population. He discusses the challenges and opportunities of aging in place. Read more at the Star web site.
Stafford Keynote at Fair Housing Conference
The
Indiana Civil Rights Commission, working with the Back Home in Indiana
Alliance, Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, and the
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, held a Fair Housing Conference
titled Fair Housing and Beyond, on Friday, April 8, 2011. The conference focused on providing equal
housing opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
CAC Director Interview
Dr. Phil Stafford, our director, discusses his book Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America with Lorell LaBoube of the Bioethics Channel. This lively interview is about 17 minutes long and can be found under July on the Bioethics Channel page. Use this direct link to open the MP3 interview automatically.
Aging Indiana Workbooks Now Available
Planning Tools for Elder-Friendly Communities provide valuable information to citizen planners and activists, as well as professionals in aging. Made possible by the Daniels Fund, these new tools are available for free download at Aging Indiana.
- The Communications Toolkit offers strategic media messages and story lines for the key indicators of an elder-friendly community.
- How to Develop a Home Modification Initiative describes how to create a community coalition to advocate for the availability of affordable home modifications.
- Mental Health in Older Adults will assist communities to address unmet mental health needs in their older residents.
The three new publications join an additional guide also available on the Aging Indiana website, Evidence Based Interventions to Improve Physical Activity in Older Adults.
The guidebooks are in Adobe PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download here.
It’s Not a Case, but a Person: Building Communication Bridges in Dementia Care
A workshop with anthropologist, Philip B. Stafford, Ph.D., held November 29 - 30, 2010
Communication is hard enough in normal circumstances, let alone those situations in which an individual being served has cognitive changes associated with forms of dementia. Participants in the workshop left with the belief that persons with dementia are never "not here" – that it is our inability to communicate, not theirs, which results in social isolation and so-called loss of self.The workshop was held November 29-30, 2010, at the Center for Aging & Community in Indianapolis' Fountain Square. For further workshop details, visit the It’s Not a Case, but a Person web page.
Staff Contributes to Impact
Available with articles by CAC staff is the Winter 2010 edition of the Impact
Newsletter, which is a feature
issue on Aging and
People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Published by the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota, this issue features articles on family relationships, spirituality, health, futures planning, community inclusion, and more!
For a complimentary copy as long as they last, call the Institute on Community Integration's Publications Office at 612-624-4512 or email icipub@umn.edu. The issue is also available on the Web at http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/231.
Center Open House
The Center in the news: Workforce Wise
Inside Indiana Business cites CAC's research on Indiana's aging workforce.
Video Stories
Staff have long been gathering stories from people with disabilities. View new interview footage on the Center's Video Collection page. View new interview footage on the Center's Video Collection page.
Building Leadership Series
The Building Leadership Series project concluded its fifth and final year. The series consisted of three two-day workshops attended over a course of three months. For more information, visit our Building Leadership Series pages.
Emergency & Disaster Planning Publication
I am Citizen Prepared is a publication for people with disabilities and the people who support them. Emergency preparedness is a topic that is on the minds of many Americans these days in light of the 9-11 tragedy and subsequent terrorist attacks all over the world. There is much written about the subject, but not in a format that is accessible to people with intellectual/developmental disabilities.
I am Citizen Prepared is designed to provide information that does not focus on the scary aspect of disasters and emergencies. It offers the reader suggestions on how to prepare oneself in the event that an emergency does arise. The reader is encouraged to think of emergency preparedness as a project rather than a reaction to an unexpected and frightening event.
I am Citizen Prepared is 56 pages on 8.5 x 11 paper and opens with Adobe Acrobat - Download
Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download here.
Creative Callings: Arts-Related Work and Disabilities
A free guide to online career resources for people in Indiana is now available in both a glare-free Adobe PDF file as well as a printer-friendly PDF file.
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader here.
New Poster Series Available
Voice of the People
The Voice of the People poster series highlights common concerns and wishes of people with disabilities told in their own voices.
For more information, further description, and an order form, download the Poster Flyer in Adobe PDF format or go to our Products Section.
Home Modification Report Published
We at the Center on Aging and Community are excited to announce the completion of the Home Modification Report.
If you're even more curious, you might check out our Resources Section for more online resources about this subject - just go to the list labeled "home modification."
Putting Memory in Place Conference
The Center on Aging and Community collaborated with multiple units of the university to sponsor and coordinate a series of academic and public events that explored the relationships between memory and place and identified how memories and remembering, as a civic engagement process, benefit individuals and communities.
Held in Bloomington February 22-23, the workshop brought together a unique assemblage of humanists, social scientists, community-based practitioners, information scientists and the local community to explore how new technologies can help sustain individual and community memory.
For a complete description of events, visit the workshop blog at www.puttingmemoryinplace.blogspot.com.