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Giving Compass' Take:
• Grantmakers in Aging provides an introduction for funders who want to help seniors age in their communities - a universal desire around the world.
• Which combination of these approaches would be appropriate in your community?
• Read a comprehensive guide to funding in aging.
When it comes to promoting health in aging, good ideas have no borders. We need to learn from the best ideas the world has to offer – the bright spots from around the globe that can provide both inspiration and practical solutions to help us accelerate progress toward improved health as we age in communities across the United States.
The desire to remain in our homes and communities as we age is felt around the world. As a result, there is a great need for safe, supportive housing (or housing-related services and arrangements) to promote health, prevent injury, delay the need for institutional care, reduce social isolation, and build intergenerational connection and stronger families and communities.
As the global population gets permanently older, housing and housing-related supports must keep pace with this profound demographic change.
This report from Grantmakers In Aging (GIA), a Washington, DC-based membership organization of philanthropies, seeks to capture a range of promising approaches to aging in community being used around the world. In doing so, we hope to provide inspiration for interested communities, funders, and others to explore similar solutions. It is part of GIA’s Innovation@Home initiative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which also featured a contest, co-sponsored by the WHO, to gather international examples of aging in community. Almost all contest entries became part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Database of Global Age-friendly Practices and several are profiled in this report.
Many different models, pilots, and grassroots efforts are sometimes short-handed as “agefriendly housing.” Approaches from around the world are explored here according to the following six themes:
- The many ways of sharing housing;
- Approaches for retrofitting existing homes;
- Approaches to building new structures;
- Policies and practices for supporting people so they can live at home;
- Monitoring and other technology-based approaches; and
- Incentivizing positive behaviors through zoning, policy, and funding.
No single model will work everywhere, and some are closely tied to local policies or funding options. Many successful approaches do not require construction or large-scale change, but focus instead on involving volunteers, increasing community engagement, and improving coordination and availability of services in entire neighborhoods. Finally, the importance of listening and respecting the strengths and preferences of older adults can not be overstated.
The desire to stay in community as we age is universal. It is felt in cities and villages, rich and poor neighborhoods, and more and less developed countries around the world. The WHO includes housing as one of the eight domains in its framework for age-friendly cities and communities, and there is broad consensus among governments, industry, and philanthropy that safe, supportive housing (or housing-related services and arrangements) do much to promote health, prevent injury, delay the need for institutional care, reduce social isolation, and build stronger families and communities by encouraging intergenerational connection.