By Jack Cumming
There are many alternatives for aging, ranging from staying put to moving to a Life Plan Community (CCRC) with a lifetime commitment. Of these, the most popular option by far is to stay put. The residential senior living industry has struggled with this dynamic.
Of course, business-minded enterprises have been emerging to provide care services in an older person’s home. More intriguing, though, is the developing concept of senior villages. As is true of CCRCs, there is no standard model for what a village is, though virtually all of them bring volunteers together with those needing services.
A unique opportunity to learn more about villages is coming on May 13th. Read on to learn why you may want to attend the presentation and to find the link. It’s cost-free.
Origins
The origins of the village movement are traced to the formation of Beacon Hill Village in 2002. Since then, the movement has been growing steadily and is now nationwide. Not long after, the Village to Village Network was formed in 2010. It began as a partnership between Beacon Hill Village and NCB Capital Impact, following high demand for help by local clusters of seniors wanting to emulate what Beacon Hill Village has achieved. NCB Capital was created by Congress in 1982 to foster equity in affordable housing, healthcare, education, cooperatives, and healthy food initiatives.
Now the VtV Network has partnered with Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration to gather data to help guide villages into the future. Initial data show the vibrancy of the movement, which was set back by the pandemic, but has been growing since. The project is labeled the 2025 National Census of Villages, and some results were presented as a poster at the recent American Society on Aging, an organization of academics and practitioners.
Opportunity
There is an opportunity for care providers to collaborate with local villages, or even to sponsor and support them, so that village members can have a clear path for when their care needs may become more intense. To learn more about the village movement and the results and uses of data gathered by the Rutgers researchers, there is an open presentation and discussion scheduled for May 13 at 2 PM Eastern time.
If you would like to learn more about how the village movement is coming of age, you can register for the presentation. There is no cost to register. Click here for the registration link.
