Montgomery County, PA

• Continuing to serve a diverse population of mature adults, almost 25% of whom are already age 55 and older;
• Providing services which must reach into urban, suburban, and rural settings;
• Providing services for both economically advantaged and disadvantaged older adults from diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds;
• Assessing and responding to the changing and evolving needs of both current older adults and the emerging needs and preferences of a younger cohort of baby-boomers who will be between age 51 and 69 in 2015. This cohort will have very different perceptions of and need for senior centers and aging/adult services;
• Identifying, mobilizing and nurturing senior center, older adult, and public/private community assets which will enable all parties to evolve and develop new strategies for attracting both clients and funding sources; offer opportunities for community involvement to older adults; and identifying and providing appropriate and wanted services for the larger community.

• What the focus for and definition of services should be for older adults before and leading up to 2015;
• How this population wants to and has the capacity to access these services;
• What community and individual needs will be addressed in using these services;
• How Montgomery County Office of Aging and Adult Services (OAAS) can make better and more informed decisions for future planning;
• What new services should be created and implemented;
• What are the most productive partnerships and alliances that should be cultivated;
• How to create a "senior savvy" community oriented to aging related opportunities;
• How can OAAS create a more exciting and cost effective program capacity;
• How to engage the larger Montgomery County community in preparation for its demographic evolution

• Demographic data collection and analysis including collection of census and other administrative data regarding population trends, i.e. Who is aging in place? Where do they live? With whom do they live? What income levels and sources of income are available to Montgomery County’s older adults? What services do Montgomery County seniors need now, and what services do they need for the future? What economic and other resources do Boomers and seniors bring to the community?
• Asset Mapping, sometimes known as an environmental scan, surveys the actors in the community and identifies their potential for contributing assets to community growth and change, determining possible roles for senior centers in the years 2015 and beyond. This approach seeks to identify associations and organizations, community institutions, and individuals who can participate in community change efforts. Much of the effort involves first creating a project advisory group then radiating out to friends and neighbors, creating a core of activists working toward the same goal which is first expressed during the visioning process described below, and made operational during Phase 2 of the project;
• The Visioning Conference of community decision-making, a one-day program, held in May of 2005 addressed a number of issues, including: How to create a system of senior services which meet the needs of all older adults from Baby Boomers to the Silent Generation and beyond? How to address the needs of the diversity of socioeconomic and ethnic groups in the county? How to embrace the needs of all regions within the county? How to create responses to all needs – Physical, Vocational, Social, and Spiritual of the current and future older population? How to use the resources brought by the ten senior centers most creatively to meet the needs of their new and old constituencies?

 

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