People in all phases of life have much to contribute to the vitality of the community—ideas, willingness to work, wisdom, resources, time, etc. The more everyone participates in community life, the more everyone benefits.
The AdvantAge Initiative aspires to the creation of a new mindset in the community, as a necessary requirement for changes in policy and practice. This initiative is about people changing their vision of how the community interacts and how older persons interact as full participants in the community. If the ideas from this movement appear in public, philanthropic and corporate plans and programs, it will have succeeded.
While this movement is ongoing, success will be achieved if there is:
Raised awareness of aging creatively
Recognition of older adults in and of the community
The community demonstrates concern for older persons
Personal planning around later stages of life occurs
The AdvantAge Initiative is a project of the Center for Home Care Policy and Research of Visiting Nurse Service of New York involving 10 communities throughout the United States. Indianapolis is one of the sites, and the local initiative is under the auspices of CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions, supported by the local Leadership Group.
What Is In This Action Guide
This action guide is a blueprint for change for the community. It is for all persons young, old; corporate leaders, small business owners, self-employed; users of social services and leaders and workers in the social services; wealthy, middle class, poor; elected officials; philanthropists, religious leaders and their congregates.
In this guide we:
Share a vision of what this community can be like if it is aging friendly
Identify what we can do to achieve this vision
Suggest who can collaborate to do this
Our intention is not to be prescriptive, but to expand the dialog and activity around making our community aging friendly. Our vision and suggested actions revolve around four areas social and civic engagement, physical and mental health and well being, basic needs and independence. We have also included the vision, mission and guiding principals of AdvantAge Initiative in Indianapolis and some of the trends related to aging that will significantly impact our community in the next twenty years.
What You Can Do to be Engaged
The Action Guide is a way of thinking and a call for action. An action can be as simple as thinking about what you or your organization is doing and doing it in a more senior friendly way. Or it may be adopting a proposed action in this Action Guide and implementing it. Implementation can be done by an individual, an organization or collaborative effort. Most important is that the whole community starts doing something. . .takes action.
Next Steps for the AdvantAge Initiative and the Community
Over the next year, we would like the community to begin to increase its dialogue about how to make Indianapolis a senior friendly community to commit to action as part of this process. The AdvantAge Initiative will be sharing with the community the results of a survey recently conducted with seniors. The survey will 1) highlight areas of need and strength in the community and 2) serve as a source of dialogue about how to make Indianapolis more senior friendly. The AdvantAge initiative will also provide tools for helping people develop implementation plans.
The Vision
The AdvantAge Initiative is a movement that advocates for an aging friendly community in the public, philanthropic, educational and corporate/business arenas.
Mission
The AdvantAge Initiative emphasizes meeting basic needs, supporting mental and physical health, promoting civic engagement and providing opportunities for independence.
The AdvantAge Initiative is a stimulus for community change and recognizes the worth of all people in the community, independent of age or condition.
The AdvantAge Initiative seeks to influence public, corporate and philanthropic policies to improve the quality of life of our citizens.
Guiding Principles
What is good for older persons is good for the community.
Life's latter years (as other periods of life) are a time of opportunity, self actualization and contribution.
All persons of any age want to live at their most independent level.
All people require access to basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, transportation).
All people of any age need access to adequate physical and mental health care.
Seniors have a store of accumulated wisdom and experience, and positive relationships with the community.
