Age-Friendly Cleveland Segment on TV 20

Status: Ongoing

Cleveland United States of America

Print this page City population: 39011317.8% over 60Practice started in 2018

Summary

In order to better inform older adults in Cleveland about the network of agencies providing services to older adults, the City of Cleveland launched an Age-Friendly Cleveland segment on the city-sponsored cable television channel, TV 20.

Operating 24 hours a day, TV 20 has an audience of 85,000+ households – and continues to grow. Programming is developed at Cleveland City Hall and the TV 20 studio in the Cleveland Conference Center. The signal originates from Spectrum. Beginning in 2018, the show has featured guests from city departments and other community partners, such as nonprofits and public service agencies. The format remains similar each time – the host, a professional newscaster who is employed by the station, interviews one or two guests from a featured organization. The questions asked are written by the Department of Aging staff and the agency representative so as to best tell the story to the viewing audience about the featured non-profit or government agency.

These questions highlight factual information about the organization, as well as services they offer that may be of interest to older adults. However, as the segments are meant to be evergreen, the interviews do not feature upcoming events, and guests are asked not to reference specific dates. The shows are not filmed live and guests are able to reshoot answers if need be – something which often puts guests as ease.

Prior to each episode, the director of the Department of Aging builds trust with the audience by introducing the Age-Friendly Cleveland segment, though the episodes themselves exclusively feature the partner that is being recognized. Each episode is filmed and edited by a team of professionals at the station, resulting in high-quality content. More than 28 different episodes have been filmed.

Website: http://www.tv20cleveland.com/introducing-age-friendly-cleveland/

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Information and communication

Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Accessibility
Ageing in place
Inclusion
Participation

Contact details

Name: Mary McNamara

Email address: mmcnamara@city.cleveland.oh.us

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Local authorities

Others involved in the project:

Local authorities
Civil Society Organisation
Older People’s Association
Social or health care provider
Volunteers

How collaboration worked: The Age-Friendly Cleveland Segment utilized cross-departmental collaboration, as the show is shot, edited, and hosted by the city’s cable television station. The show is also reliant on partnerships with local nonprofits and public service agencies, as they feature guests from such organizations on each episode. The show is funded from the city of Cleveland’s general fund budget, and speakers on the program do not charge a fee to participate.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: If possible, it is preferred that older people be featured on the show. For example, when a local volunteer organization was interviewed on the show, a senior volunteer was included along with the staff member of the nonprofit. Additionally, the city’s senior advisory council provides suggestions of topics they would like to see on the program.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? Yes

Feedback:
Senior Cleveland residents enjoy watching the Age-Friendly Cleveland segment. Due to the demand to access the videos, they have been uploaded to YouTube, where they can be viewed again and again. Many videos have hundreds of views (such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt8APWhDcmA&list=PLchFKaABwwA2M_qVPEjFrEUicRZhG47Lb&index=2), and the series has thousands of views as a whole. The YouTube channel has almost 1,500 subscribers, and has a collective view count of over a half of a million views.

Expansion plans:
We would like to expand the program through continuing to create new episodes, allowing more organizations to be featured and highlighted.

Looking back

Reflections:
The idea for this segment came from a newsletter from AARP about a similar strategy in another community. This was an easy strategy to implement after engaging the city’s cable station and has far reaching capacity, especially for those who may be homebound and be unaware of the services. The video links can be found on the station’s YouTube Channel and have proven to be helpful for some of the smaller nonprofits in telling their own stories. These agencies may not have the resources for high quality video services. The videos at time do incorporate footage of the agency in action and not just in a studio setting. See an example here for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFzgnq2YUnU

Challenges:
It can be challenging to ensure that guests are comfortable on camera and able to answer questions professionally and concisely. In order to produce the highest quality content, we suggest those wishing to replicate the program talk to potential guests over the phone or in-person prior to the show. This gives the guests a chance to better understand the segment and expectations.