"Creating Aging-Friendly Communities" Conference Begins

The Creating Aging-Friendly Communities online conference website has opened up and the live conference events will be starting this week. For more information about this conference, please see a previous post. I have started to explore the site and have found many policy and research papers available, a list of organizations interested in aging-friendly issues, discussion board areas, and a searchable list of participants to encourage networking. There are several librarians already signed in to the conference, including Allan Kleiman of Senior Spaces and Satia Orange, Director of the Office for Literacy & Outreach Services of the American Library Association. I am glad to see librarians participating and networking at this conference. I will probably be only participating asynchronously, due to my schedule, but I hope to blog about some of the presentations.

Unfortunately, this free conference has had so many people interested, that the organizers have had to limit registrations. However, the organizers have promised that all of the content from the conference will be made available to the general public after the conference.

"Creating Aging-Friendly Communities" Conference

The University of California at Berkeley, Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services and Community Strengths will be hosting a free online conference. The American Library Association is one of the co-sponsors. The "Creating Aging-Friendly Communities" conference website is here.
The conference description states:

"Join participants from state and local government, community-based organizations, policy makers, business leaders, funders, recognized experts, and concerned citizens, as they capture emerging knowledge regarding ways to make their communities more aging-friendly."

I think that this is a wonderful opportunity for librarians to "have a seat at the table". In other words, we can participate in discussions about community building and community planning. I think that creating dialogs with community based organizations and government agencies (such as Aging Services) can lead to new ideas and successful partnerships.

The conference will take place over three weeks. It will have previously recorded presentations, which can be viewed at any time during the conference or up to 60 days after the conference. There will also be live presentations and live panel discussions on Wednesday, February 20th, Wednesday, February 27th, and Wednesday, March 5th.. One can also participate in scheduled online discussions and informal networking. This is great because it can potentially include anyone interested in aging services and lifelong learning throughout the country - with no need for travel or related expenses!

Conference topics will include the characteristics of aging-friendly communities, lifelong learning, developing community partnerships, building local capacity, mobility and transportation issues, intergenerational perspectives, health and wellness, "aging in place", and creating communities of practice for aging-friendly communities.

I would like to thank Satia Orange for posting about this conference on the ALA Senior Services listserv.