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Age-friendly College

Summary

NYAM, in partnership with the Mayor’s office and the NY City Council, has launched the nation’s first searchable online database that empowers older adults to browse, search, compare, and connect with mostly free educational opportunities at dozens of local colleges and universities. The database is comprised of NYC-area college and university profiles with information of interest to older adults, including degree programs, continuing education, campus events and resources, distance learning, and older adult-specific programs. Examples of information found in school profiles include: Senior discounts or free access to courses and campus events; Classes in accounting, computer technology, science, money management, foreign languages, and many other subjects; English as a Second Language and GED courses; Job skills/training and certificate programs; Access to campus facilities like libraries, art galleries, fitness centers, and observatories; Public lecture series; Online courses; Programs designed especially for older adults.

Website: http://www.agefriendlycollege.org/content/about-database

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): public sector, private sector

Sector(s): Information and communication

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Contact details

Name: Goldman, Lindsay

Email address: goldman@nyam.org

Preferred language(s): English

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Research institution

Older people’s involvement: Older people were consulted during the planning process

Details on older people’s involvement: The database was created in direct response to older New Yorkers’ requests for greater information about educational opportunities during Age-friendly NYC’s initial citywide assessment process.

Moving forward

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

Looking back

Reflections:
This work had never been done before. Creating the database became very gratifying because we were able to curate a large amount of information for older adults in a productive, user-friendly format. Older adults using the database will find offerings from more than 40 schools, and includes senior discounts for continuing education courses; free auditing privileges; job training and certificate programs; GED and English as a Second Language courses; programs for older adults only as well as public events, performances and lectures series and access to campus resources including art galleries, museums and gyms.

Challenges:
We are currently working to develop a sustainability plan for the database we created. In the future, if we decide to curate content, we will devise a sustainability plan before collecting any data. We also plan to analyze the user experience and utilization rates of the database. Many of the universities were not responsive to requests for information, and it was difficult to determine the appropriate person to whom the request should be directed.