You may be pleasantly surprised to hear that Gainesville has opted into a nationally recognized program to be designated age-friendly by both the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities and the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities.

As a requirement to join the Age-Friendly Community Network, Alachua County had to apply for admission into an elite group of only 384 cities nationally and only 33 communities in Florida. The organization leading this process is Elder Options, the state-designated area agency on aging, under the umbrella of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. They administer state and federal grant-funded programs and direct services to benefit elders and people with disabilities for a 16-county area in north Florida.

Elder Options, in partnership with the Alachua County Commission, has actually been working toward this goal since 2001 when both organizations supported the “Communities for a Lifetime” initiative. After voters approved a one-half percent sales surtax in 2008, the city and the county allocated $1.5 million each for construction of the Senior Recreation Center.

In 2019 the Alachua County Commission fully committed to the need’s assessment survey of the county’s older residents as required by AARP and the World Health Organization to receive the age-friendly designation. We have a history of supporting our seniors but there is more to be done.

To be a member of the Age-Friendly Network, a city must address eight domains: outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, civic participation and employment, housing, communication and information, social participation, community and health services, and respect and social inclusion.

Elder Options developed a survey for those residents 50 and over to create a three- to five-year action plan (2021-2023) specific to the needs of Alachua County seniors. Since I know this will be of interest to curious readers, the groups that participated are a good cross section of Gainesville organizations. They were Florida Department of Health — Alachua, Elder Options of North Central Florida, Eldercare/Senior Center, Community Coalition of Older Adults, Alachua County Social Services, Alachua County Libraries, Partnership for Strong Families, local African American churches and WCJB TV20 News.

Based on the survey, the top concerns for area seniors are:

• Housing (affordable and accessible housing options for older adults as well as improving the option of aging in place)
• Transportation (such as ease of public transport around Gainesville, priority seating for seniors, senior low-cost Uber options, etc.)
• Respect and inclusion (such as improving social inclusion and respect in the community for our elders by integrating inter-generational gatherings and activities so we can all learn from each other)

I think it is critically important that the very first priority the survey revealed is affordable housing, especially given the current political climate of raiding the Sadowski Trust Fund again for projects other than affordable housing, as originally intended.

Currently, Elder Options is working to develop a sustainable action plan addressing all the domains by partnering with organizations committed to improving the quality of life for our elders. This will allow them to leverage existing area resources to maximize the impact of this plan.

They have partnered with the Community Coalition for Older Adults, the Alachua County Health Department and Alachua County to address the action plan in the next few years. All of these groups — and especially Elder Options, under the leadership of its chief executive officer, Kristen Griffis — are coming up with new and creative ways to address these issues.

There are plans for an Affordable Housing Trust modeled after the success of programs in other cities, restoration of underutilized or vacant older buildings and home sharing ideas. Learn more by visiting the website at http://bit.ly/agefriendlyalachua.

According to the Florida Department of Health, more than 79,000 of our residents are over 50 and this group is growing quickly. We need to meet the needs of our senior residents and plan for these numbers to increase. If we truly want Gainesville to be a place where we are age-friendly, then let’s all support this action plan in any way we can.

Seniors relocating to Florida are looking first at cities designated “age-friendly” by AARP. Since they are civic minded, vote more than any other demographic, usually support the arts and give back to a community through volunteering, why wouldn’t we encourage them to move here?

Let’s make sure once they do, they have access to affordable housing, good transportation and are welcomed and included.