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Senior citizens are living longer, more fuller lives than ever before-- particularly in New York, where the senior population is growing fast and will continue to accelerate in the coming years.
In response, New York City has launched Age-Friendly New York, a program to begin accommodating the needs of this swelling population.
In Bed-Stuy the older population is especially active, taking a lead role on the community boards, block associations and countless civic organizations.
For this reason, The Coalition for the Improvement of Bedford Stuyvesant (CIBS), in cooperation with the New York Academy of Medicine and Local Initiatives Support Corporation, has launched the Aging Improvement District (AID), a pilot program that aims to build an atmosphere in Bed-Stuy that supports the needs of the elderly.
“We were really interested in partnering with the City on this because of the number of seniors in the neighborhood and because of the way the neighborhood is so deeply connected to that population,” said Melissa Lee, managing director for CIBS.
Bed-Stuy will be the third neighborhood to participate in AID (the other two are in East Harlem and the Upper West Side), and the first in Brooklyn.
Through a private grant from the Fan Fox and Leslie R Samuels Foundation, CIBS has started convening a series of roundtables or “community conversations” with older residents to identify service gaps and develop fitting solutions.
“We’re trying to meet with as many seniors as possible,” said Lee. “Already, we’ve gathered seniors from churches, senior centers, community boards, wherever we could.
“Our goal is to have 15 roundtables, and capture their response of why they live here, what are their experiences, what are the positives, negatives, what services are working and what are not.”
At each roundtable, seniors are asked a series of about 50 questions, polled on what they feel the neighborhood should look like to improve their own quality of life. CIBS will cull their responses together into a district plan that outlines recommendations for short- and long-term projects.
Early Findings: There are a high number of food-insecure older adults in Bed-Stuy; many of whom struggle with a combination of food access (proximity and transit route to grocers), affordability (cost of food and ability to pay); adequacy (access to fresh foods) and appropriateness (meeting nutritional requirements based on health needs).
CIBS is planning another month of roundtables before completing the district plan which it will unveil at a launch event in April.
“This is an important opportunity for the neighborhood to create a place that is age-friendly, not just for seniors but for all of us who will get there on day,” said Lee. “We want our seniors to remain in the neighborhood, participate in the neighborhood and continue to thrive in the neighborhood.”
Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org
Reporters: to arrange interviews with NYAM medical and urban health experts, contact
Andrew J. Martin, Director of Communications
212-822-7285 / amartin@nyam.org
The 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture - The Affordable Care Act: An Insider’s View
Featured Speaker: Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
November 19, 2012 - The NYAM Section on Health Care Delivery welcomes Sherry Glied, PhD, former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who will deliver the 2012-2013 Duncan Clark Lecture on "The Affordable Care Act: An Insider's View."
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The New York Academy of Medicine with support from the New York State Heath Foundation released a new report, Federal Health Care Reform in New York State: A Population Health Perspective.
This report identifies opportunities that build on both the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) and New York’s ongoing efforts toward improving the health of its 19 million residents.
Read press release
Read report
