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Life is more exhilarating for Esther Hussey, 77, and many of her 5,000 contemporaries living in Milwaukee’s Layton Boulevard neighborhood, a community in transition just south of downtown Milwaukee. Hussey and other area seniors now have a central gathering place, the newly opened 55-Plus Center, which allows them to stimulate their minds, bodies and spirits thanks to the Connecting Caring Communities (CCC) initiative. CCC is a partnership of older adults, organizations, businesses and government facilitated by the Milwaukee County Department on Aging.
“We’re trying to make it possible for people to get out, so seniors aren’t cooped up,” Hussey says of the ongoing changes in her neighborhood to better serve its senior citizens.
At the 55-Plus Center, Hussey and her neighbors can exercise or take classes in fitness, lifestyle redesign, computer skills and other subjects. They can join book groups, eat or chat in a café-style cafeteria, or just drop by in order to break up a routine that has kept too many living a shut-in existence.
Before the center’s opening, seniors living in this low- to moderate-income neighborhood had few options for getting together or reasons to get out. Fear of crime and lack of transportation increased the risk that area elders would continue to grow isolated.
The 55-Plus Center is the focal point of the CCC initiative geared to providing services that help area seniors feel safe and socially connected in their Layton Boulevard neighborhood. CCC initially envisioned helping area residents with land-use and housing issues.
“What we first thought of and what we ended up with were different, and that’s a good thing,” says Jeanne Prochnow, director of quality for the non-profit Community Care Organization, a partner in the CCC community partnership in Milwaukee. Prochnow oversees the Layton Boulevard project, one of several CCC efforts on-going in Milwaukee helped by a grant from the Community Partnerships for Older Adults (CPOA).
The effort shifted in focus because CCC leaders listened to what older residents said they needed, and thanks to geographic information system (GIS) mapping, an established technology that is now being discovered increasingly by senior- and community-focused organizations.
GIS mapping pairs databases of information, such as Census Bureau data, with advanced mapping capabilities. It’s a powerful tool that allows government, industry and others to plan better and more precisely allocate resources. That capability holds substantial promise for community agencies with restricted budgets (see sidebar).
Seeing the benefits GIS mapping has brought to Milwaukee city government in recent years, aging-department officials urged their CCC partners to use the technology for planning purposes. Two years ago, the Urban Planning and Architecture School of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee adopted the Layton Boulevard project, working with Prochnow and other partners to analyze the community from the perspective of older residents. Census data, crime statistics and other information were used to develop sophisticated maps that help community services organizations to better understand the community, its assets and lack of resources.
“GIS mapping propelled us forward tremendously,” says Prochnow. It was eye-opening to view detailed demographic data on residents and the neighborhood’s changes over time. Moreover, maps were created of the area, showing its true crime picture and locations of schools, restaurants, clinics, churches, bars, banks, civic resources and bus routes. This has helped the partners better address problems facing seniors and determine which organizations were missing from the CCC partnership.
Crime was a huge concern with older residents. GIS mapping revealed where crime was concentrated, but also showed crime was more a perceived threat than real. CCC partners invited city police to talk with residents about crime, and are working with the district attorney’s office to set up “peacemaking circles,” in a cultural awareness initiative that engages the older white residents with newer and younger Hispanic and Asian neighbors.
GIS mapping also helped show where a shuttle bus route was needed, leading to a bus service for seniors that runs continuously throughout the morning, stopping at grocery stores, the senior center, banks and other vital locations.
Meanwhile, Hussey and other seniors are talking about outfitting the new 55-Plus Center as a resource hub, providing information on accessing local services, voting and understanding Medicare and Social Security.
Harnessing Technology to Enhance Social Connectedness
GIS mapping is helping Aging Futures, a Community Partnerships for Older Adults grantee, and a coalition of 55 entities led by the Broome County Office for Aging, to improve the lives of older adults in the mixed urban/rural county in upstate New York. Aging Futures is supporting caregivers of older adults, reducing instances of stroke and untreated depression, and improving the social connections for vulnerable and isolated seniors in this economically depressed county.
“A picture is worth a thousand words to us,” says Kathleen Bunnell, director of the Broome County Office for Aging, and chair of the Aging Futures partnership. When resources are limited, educated guesses about allocating those resources don’t cut it. “You really need hard data,” she says.
Bunnell’s office has used GIS mapping for some 20 years, and is thrilled coalition partners now have access to the technology, under the office’s relationship with Binghamton University. The school’s geography department is providing GIS mapping services and know-how to Aging Futures.
Another Aging Futures partner, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), is using GIS mapping for the first time. RSVP is jazzed about how the technology is helping it identify isolated seniors and link them with neighbors, friends and volunteers to help them stay in their own homes.
One immediate payoff for RSVP came in recruiting volunteers. With only a $200,000 annual budget, RSVP depends on a core group of 1,000 volunteers who help run 125 different non-profit programs in the county, including tax assistance, Meals on Wheels and telephone reassurance programs.
After only six months of tailoring GIS mapping specifically to its program, RSVP doubled the number of its new volunteers in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, says RSVP director Kathy Gitto. With GIS, RSVP got a precise picture of where its volunteers lived, and where it needed to focus recruitment efforts.
“We had some real surprises,” Gitto says. “GIS mapping helped us hone our efforts in terms of recruitment. Before, our efforts were more like buckshot: they were a lot less precise.”
By: Chris Gearon
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