Erie County will become more age friendly by working collaboratively with older adults and those who serve them. This begins with gaining a greater understanding of unmet needs of older adults across several domains and mobilizing the community to cultivate resources to address those needs. Initial attention will be given to areas where the Depatment of Senior Services has a level of control over moving toward improvement. To that end, Erie County intends to:

1. Create more inclusive and representative planning processes on both the community and individual level through increased training and the pursuit of opportunities to collaborate with older adults. Our approach to this is described in the response to question two.
2. Develop new and improve existing programs to promote, maintain, and restore health. Examples of programs include Ready Set Home, which takes an age-friendly approach to service provision by going to the places where older adults in need of services are most likely to be; Choose Healthy, which brings evidence-based disease management classes to older adults; and Consumer-directed home care services, which empower older adults to take direct control over their care need.
3. Create meaningful volunteer experiences for older adults and harness this resource to fuel evidence based programs that rely on peer leaders, and other types of services like faith-based volunteer respite programs.
4. Reduce social isolation by improving transportation and increasing access to the internet by providing home bound elders with one on one training on internet basics including social media and email.
5. Leverage UB/Age Friendly education and training for more inclusive work environments and events.
6. Make small changes that deliver big impact such as modifying font size for brochures and handouts regarding services.