SWAMPSCOTT — The Senior Center and the Council on Aging have received a grant that will help them expand outreach and marketing and facilitate the reframing of aging in the community.
The $7,800 grant from the Massachusetts Association of Council on Aging & Senior Center Directors, Inc. will go towards producing a printed resource guide for seniors as well as developing a new, easy-to-use website that would combine resources of the Senior Center, Council on Aging and Swampscott for All Ages Committee.
The new website and the guide expected to launch in late spring will help these three bodies to intertwine their activities, develop new intergenerational programs to bring generations together and widen the age span of clients who use their services and participate in their work.
“Our senior population in Swampscott is growing drastically,” said Director of Aging Services Heidi Whear. “It’s imperative that we do what we can to reach them where they are with both print and online resources.”
Over the next 10 years, Whear said, the number of Swampscott’s seniors will increase from less than 25 percent to more than 33 percent of the town’s population. The majority of the seniors — 85 percent — want to age in place in their homes.
“It is not a silver tsunami. It is about reintegrating seniors into our life to be a part of a productive and vibrant community,” Whear said. “The resource guide will point out what is going on and point out what we need, like more transportation.”
A 2019 needs assessment conducted by the Swampscott for All Ages Committee showed that most of the residents older than age 80 do not use a computer, but rather use newspapers and word of mouth to find information.
“The best thing for us to do is to create this resource guide and to mail it to every home in Swampscott. That’s what the goal is with this grant. And also create a website,” said Whear.
In the meantime, the Senior Center is looking to recreate itself to engage the rest of the town.
“It sure would be wonderful if we weren’t just seen as ‘those old people,’” said Whear.
The needs assessment showed that only 17 percent of people over the age of 55 have visited the Senior Center; that is why the center is looking to attract a younger aging population. Whear said that they are planning in the future to keep the doors open later on some days and create a more diverse programming.
The Swampscott for All Ages Committee is designed after the age-friendly initiative of the World Health Organization that has identified eight domains of an age-friendly community: housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, community support and health services, outdoor space and buildings and transportation.
Whear’s position was created to try to look at how Swampscott is dealing with communication and connecting people with resources, whether there is appropriate and accessible transportation, how more services can be made available and what else can be done to make it easier for residents to stay in their homes as long as they want and are able to.
The Council on Aging is a board that meets on a monthly basis to discuss and develop initiatives that would most effectively serve the aging residents of Swampscott and identify and address their needs.
