Municipal Toolkit
Summary
St. Louis County has a great diversity of people and communities, including 88 municipalities that range in size from over 50,000 residents to several communities with populations under 300 residents. The municipal inventory in Aging Successfully in St. Louis County: A Quality of Life Assessment indicates there is a broad continuum of municipal services offered to older adults. A few cities have dedicated Senior Services Offices and staff, and many municipalities provide recreational and social programming for older adults through recreation facilities and community centers. Whether providing direct services or connecting older adults to other community services, our municipalities play a unique role in shaping the quality of life for older adults throughout St. Louis County.
To extend the reach of the Age-Friendly Community Action Plan, and assist municipalities in taking steps to better serve their older residents, St. Louis County has created an Age-Friendly Municipal Toolkit. The purpose of the toolkit is to provide concrete resources municipal leaders and staff can use to build their capacity for an aging population and age-friendly community.
The Age-Friendly Municipal Toolkit can be used in its entirety, or by chapter, as it links municipalities to resources that work towards age-friendly communities. The toolkit is intended to be a living document and will be continually updated as additional pieces are created. The chapters within the toolkit were created with the input of a working group of municipal representatives.
The purpose of the toolkit is to provide concrete resources municipal leaders and staff can use to build their capacity for an aging population and age-friendly community.
Building an Age-Friendly Profile:
1) Age-Friendly Needs Assessment explains how to evaluate the age-friendliness of a community;
2) Asset Mapping explains an exercise for staff and stakeholders to identify the strong points of a community;
3) Community Engagement: Surveying Older Adults explains how to ask for valuable community input from older adult residents and includes a question bank of standard survey questions;
4) Age-Friendly Facilities Audit explains how to review the age-friendliness of municipal buildings and public spaces;
5) Age-Friendly Walk Audit provides a tool for assessing the age-friendliness of the built environment including sidewalks and road ways
6) Age-Friendly Website explains how to review the age-friendliness of your website and advises on ways to improve readability for persons of all ages;
Building a Resource Library:
7) Common Referral Resource Guide is a reliable list of common referrals to agencies focused on key issues that older adults face;
8) Home Care Seasonal Checklist is a printable to-do list for preventative home maintenance by season;
Building an Age-Friendly Community:
9) Creating an Older Adult Commission explains the main components to include in legislation to create an older adult board or commission in a municipality;
10) Age-Friendly Code Amendments explains code modifications that promote more age-friendly development and mobility in a community.
Key facts
Main target group: Older people in general
Other target group(s): Municipal Leaders
Sector(s): Health, Housing, Information and communication, Transportation, Urban development
Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs
- Accessibility
- Ageing in place
- Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
- Inclusion
- Participation