In 2014, the City of Cleveland joined the WHO Age Friendly Cities and Communities Network in order to enhance the city’s standing as a community for people of all ages and abilities. Our mission is to improve the quality of life in the City of Cleveland by strengthening our neighborhoods, delivering superior services, embracing the diversity of our citizens, and making Cleveland a desirable, safe city in which to live, work, raise a family, shop, study, play and grow old.

In 2006, the City of Cleveland engaged in an Elder Friendly Communities Pilot Project to assess the needs of older adults and make recommendations to create a community so elder friendly that current older residents desire to remain, former residents wish to return and new residents are recruited based on elder friendly aspects of the city and it’s neighborhoods. Out of this project came a city wide transportation program, an expanded chore service and a multi-department Senior Initiative to address the most challenging housing needs of Cleveland seniors.

The Age Friendly Cities project is a great opportunity to reassess the needs of our community and respond with an action plan to build upon our current programming and develop innovative solutions. The Cleveland Department of Aging is charged with ensuring Cleveland is an elder friendly community by enhancing the quality of life for older adults through advocacy, planning, service coordination and the delivery of needed services. We look forward to beginning our Community Assessment phase to determine the current needs and desires of the community.