Lifelong Communities: Promoting Healthy Aging in the Atlanta Region

Almost every aspect of how we age and how we care for an older person is radically changing as current and future older adults are reinventing what it means to grow old. It is becoming clear to both individuals and professionals that the local environment—the neighborhood, city or county-- plays a significant role in determining our health and independence as we age. The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the Area Agency on Aging for the metropolitan area, has been working for several years to educate local officials and form interdisciplinary partnerships to reposition the community as a support rather than a barrier to aging adults and the families that care for them.

Working with local governments, ARC has brought together hospitals, public health agencies, housing developers, transportation planners, the faith based community and traditional supportive service agencies to create Lifelong Communities. Developed across organizational and institutional boundaries, these local partnerships are implementing strategies that: promote housing and transportation options, encourage healthy lifestyles and expand information and access. ARC and its partners combine local data with national best practices to change local housing policy, pilot transportation alternatives, increase physical activity among older residents, expand access to preventive and basic health services and educate older adults, caregivers and professionals about the changing policies and resources that affect their lives. The ARC Lifelong Communities framework responds to the needs in urban, suburban and rural parts of the Atlanta region making the lessons already learned, relevant for communities across the country.