Age-Friendly and Climate Resilient Communities: A Grey-Green Alliance.

The world's population is aging while the Earth's climate is warming. The climate change crisis poses threats to our aging population and requires concerted action. Steps to address these threats present opportunities for improving livability for people of all ages while addressing the underlying drivers of climate change. Yet prominent action frameworks such as the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities do not explicitly include climate resilience and sustainability as essential elements of age-friendly communities. In this essay, we argue for the creation of a cross-cutting and interdependent sustainability and climate resilience domain to complement the existing interconnected WHO age-friendly domains of community and healthcare, communication and information, housing, civic participation and employment, outdoor spaces and buildings, social participation, respect and social inclusion, and transportation. These domains drive the community engagement, planning, action, and evaluation required by the communities who join the Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. The age-friendly network currently includes 1,445 communities, across 51 countries. We discuss how the alignment of age-friendly and climate resilience networks strengthens local action and global advocacy through a shared vision for an age-friendly and climate resilient future.

Social Cognitive Theory, Driving Cessation, and Alternative Transportation in Later Life.

Having viable alternative transportation options could help individuals stop driving when appropriate. This study employs the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to understand the barriers and facilitators of alternative transportation among a sample of adults aged 55 and older (N = 32). Using a daily transportation data collection app, MyAmble, the research team asked participants questions structured around environmental, individual, and behavioral factors as outlined in the SCT framework. Responses were analyzed using directed content analysis. Findings suggest a substantial reliance on motor vehicles and it was evident that many participants had never seriously considered what they would do if they could no longer drive. We posit that SCT principles may be applied to help older adults build self-efficacy to transition to driving cessation when needed.

Age-friendly communities during the time of COVID-19: a model for rapid community response.

With the COVID-19 epidemic disproportionately impacting older adults, cities across the United States (U.S.) and the world scrambled to meet the needs of their older residents. Members of the World Health Organization's Age-Friendly Communities (AFCs) network rely on cross-system community collaborations and resident voices to create age-friendly social, built, and service environments. These key elements of AFCs place them in a unique position to quickly identify needs of older residents, launch short-term targeted interventions, and support integration of new programs into existing systems for post-crisis sustainability. This essay discusses how one age-friendly community applied key tenets of the Centers for Disease Control's rapid response team model to meet the immediate, short-term needs of older residents for social connection, food, personal protective equipment (PPE), emergency preparedness, and technology utilization. Sustainability of the rapid response interventions was supported through the relationships and structures created by the AFC.

Guidelines to contain disease outbreaks are helpful when responding to outcomes of outbreaks.Age-friendly communities core values align with the tenants of disaster response.Age-friendly communities are well positioned to respond to the consequences of COVID-19.

I Wanna help, but my Hands can be a Little Tied: The Challenges and Benefits of Formal Volunteering among Low-Income Diverse Older Adults.

Volunteering is often considered an important component of productive and active aging. Although there is a rich body of literature on the predictors and outcomes of volunteering among the general older adults in the United States (U.S.), few studies have explored the unique volunteering experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse older adults. Given the growing number of diverse older adults and the importance of optimizing their contributions to society, this study investigates the challenges and benefits of volunteering among low-income diverse older adults. We conducted eight 90-minute focus groups in six languages (English, Nepali, Khmer, Somali, Russian, and Chinese) with 70 older volunteers attending a Senior Companions monthly training in a U.S. Midwestern metropolitan area. Data analysis followed the Rapid and Rigorous Qualitative Data Analysis (RADaR) technique and thematic analysis through an interactive team approach. Three overarching themes highlighted the challenges of volunteering: (1) transportation, (2) community emergencies and workload, and (3) family caregiving; and three themes reflected the benefits of volunteering: (1) stress-relief, (2) training and information, and (3) peer support and socialization. Study findings shed light on diverse older adults' unique volunteering experiences with implications for recruitment and retention.

Using Community-Based Participatory Research Strategies in Age-Friendly Communities to Solve Mobility Challenges.

The number of older adults is steadily increasing in the United States and across the globe. Aging is linked to an increased risk of disability. Disabilities that limit one or more major life activities such as seeing, hearing, walking, and motor skills impact a person's ability to drive a car. Low utilization of alternative transportation by older adults and people with disabilities may put them at risk for social isolation. Social isolation is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes. While communities are challenged to create available, acceptable, accessible, adaptable and affordable mobility options, there are widely held, inaccurate biases around older adults' abilities to contribute to the development and improvement of alternative transportation options. Gerontological social workers are well-positioned to address this bias. This paper presents a case study of a large metropolitan county in the Midwest where community-based participatory research (CBPR) strategies were used to engage older residents to support the development of alternative transportation options supporting the tenets of environmental justice.