During the Age Friendly Forum, convened in July 2017 by MAGIC, participants discussed Age Friendly programs, services and policies in place in the broader MAGIC region, and as well as ideas for addressing unmet needs of a growing older population. Following is a summary of the programs, services and poli-cies in place, highlighting select examples and ideas the region is interested in exploring and promoting more.

Regional Focus
While the Age Friendly Forum evaluated all domains, the collaborative of municipalities will focus their Age Friendly Planning efforts on Housing and Transportation. As there is interest in and capacity for ex-panding efforts to evaluate and plan for other domains, the collaborative will do so in the future. The focus on Housing and Transportation will focus the regional Age Friendly planning efforts, but we acknowledge other domains such as Respect and Social Inclusion; Social Participation; and Communica-tion and Information, are inherent in these topics, and as such, discussions and solutions of Housing and Transportation are likely to cover additional domains.

Sudbury Focus
In 2016, responding to demographic changes in age and income in Sudbury, members of the Council on Aging and the Senior Center director investigated the WHO age-friendly initiative. Although the overall population grew by only 5% between 2010 and 2017, the number of residents 60 years and older grew by 33%. Now accounting for 21% of total population, this segment is likely to reach one-quarter of total in the next 3 years, not taking into account two age-restricted developments under construction. Sudbury is, in fact, aging faster than the region itself.
In addition, the town is also providing more affordable facilities and homes under MGL Chapter 40B statute, which increases potential economic vulnerability. According to the most recent Housing Pro-duction Plan, “…[An] estimated 11% of Sudbury households have incomes at or below 80% of AMI, and … somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400 households in Sudbury are housing cost-burdened, in-cluding 75% of low-income households – those earning below 80% of the AMI.…There is a great need for more affordable housing, particularly rental housing and housing targeted at the 65+ demographic.”

To address these changes, the town has embarked on three initiatives that are pertinent to this appli-cation and are described below.
Needs Assessment. Our objective is to be all-age- (“0 to 100”) and dementia-friendly. Thus, our first initiative, underway currently, consists of Community Listening Sessions plus a formal survey conduct-ed by researchers at the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging at UMass Boston. This 9-month effort, which began last fall with two public forums, focuses on the needs and interests of Sud-bury’s adult population as they shape planning and development in support of being a Livable Com-munity. In April, UMass researchers will begin the formal survey and conduct additional listening ses-sions. Final results will be available to the Master Plan and other town livable efforts in summer 2018.

Public/Private Transportation Pilot. The second initiative is multi-community and in support of the MAGIC regional focus on transportation. Several municipalities (including Sudbury, the originator of this initiative) are submitting a Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) project concept for a 1-year pilot consisting of partnership between CrossTown Connect Transportation Management Associ-ation member towns and local taxi, bus, and livery companies. The objectives are to: (1) embed an element in the regional transportation infrastructure that is a hybrid between the traditional taxi business model and mobility-on-demand services, addressing the needs of residents, service provid-ers, and suburban municipalities; (2) provide service to both market rate and subsidized customers that encompasses vetted and potentially certified senior-friendly drivers, diverse fleet with accessible vehicles, brand recognition, and extended hours; and (3) model the use of mobility-on-demand tech-nology for other cities and towns. As this regional application notes, partner towns (five of the six in-volved in the pilot are also part of the MAGIC regional application) are generally car-dependent, put-ting a number of residents at risk of isolation, loss of work and economic livelihood, inability to access medical care, etc. Within several towns there is no public transportation; parking space for commuter rail in adjoining towns is limited; and, there are few pedestrian-friendly routes from residences to like-ly destinations.
Discussions among the towns and with local taxi businesses began in early fall 2017. An RFP is sched-uled to be sent in March, with a planned start date of the pilot in fall 2018. This allows both partner groups time to continue refining the pilot, to undertake communication campaigns, to set up regular performance reporting tools, and to determine priority roll-out. The pilot will terminate in early fall 2019, and a report on the pilot will be completed within 60 days and made available to the Master Plan and other livable town efforts.

Town Transportation Committee. Finally, the Board of Selectmen is creating a town Transportation Committee. This group will consider all facets of transportation in town and provide recommenda-tions and support to the Board, Town Manager, and relevant offices and departments. It will help integrate plans and actions across affected agencies and departments within town, coordinate with regional efforts such as the CrossTown Connect initiative (above), and provide advice on what trans-portation might be needed for a livable community.
Summary of Regional Programs, Services and Policies in Place:

Housing
• Municipalities are advancing planning and policies to meet the needs for senior housing; that en-courage transit-oriented development; that apply universal design principles; and that connect older adults to important services. Littleton recently established zoning bylaws for Senior Residential Housing.
• There is interest in supporting a variety of housing options to meet the needs of older adults and support aging in the community. There is also interest in ensuring that housing is proximal to local amenities; has shuttle services; and fosters social and intergenerational cohesion, both within housing developments and through community programming. Towns are interested in municipal policy that supports age-friendly and affordable housing options for older adults.
Transportation
• CrossTown Connect is a Transportation Management Association (TMA) that facilitates regional mo-bility by connecting and providing area transportation services and programs. These include services and programs particularly for older adults, such as accessible transportation services to medical fa-cilities and shopping centers, and specialized and fixed-route services within and between municipalities. CrossTown Connect serves Acton, Boxborough, Littleton, Maynard, Stow, Westford and Concord. Most of the Councils on Aging in the region also provide shuttle services for older residents.
• The region values affordable transportation services for older adults that are reliable and easy to use. Affordability and ease. The region is interested in models that meet a variety of transportation needs, including at-home pick up and drop off; and service to ‘quality of life’ locations, in addition to medical and shopping centers. The region also promotes complete streets to ensure safe walking, biking, and active movement. The region is interested in exploring how ride share apps; and short-term, on-demand rentals can fill service gaps.
Outdoor Spaces and Buildings
• The region has significant open space assets for public use, including hiking and biking trails. Munici-palities also promote universal design principles of buildings to ensure ease of use and access, and many have complete streets policies in place to support pedestrians and cyclists in safely moving around shared street networks, facilitating access to both open space amenities and buildings.
• Buildings and open space can facilitate healthy and active living, by ensuring the design and ameni-ties of both promote safety and encourage use. The region values open spaces being accessible (easy to navigate, easy to understand conditions of trails or paths, painted curbs, promote “equity at intersections” where traffic is multimodal, longer times at crosswalks, public bathrooms, water fountains); that these include age-friendly amenities (raised community garden beds, shade, places to sit, adult playgrounds/workout stations); and that they facilitate interaction and socializing, and provide opportunity for open space stewardship by older adults. The region also values buildings being physically accessible, and that public buildings take the hearing and sight needs of older adults into consideration.
Civic Participation and Employment
• Municipalities offer programs and services to encourage adult learning, computer skills, and civic engagement. Lexington offers Citizen’s Academy, a 10-week course that introduces residents to municipal government.
• Municipalities provide engagement opportunities for older adults in town planning and political pro-cesses, and through volunteer and employment opportunities. Lincoln and Acton have volunteer po-sitions for older adults in municipal offices.
• Municipalities encourage civic participation via approaches that deliberately include older adults. Carlisle and Concord set aside parking for older adults at town meeting to provide greater access and encourage participation.
• There is interest in identifying and streamlining information about municipal and other volunteer opportunities for older adults; increasing such volunteer opportunities; coordinating with transit services so that older adults can have greater access to municipal meetings and events.
Communication and Information
• Municipalities use a variety of communication media and approaches to reach older adults. These include in-person outreach, phone calls and texting, social media, print newsletters, and other methods. Littleton offers Tiger Tech, a program that supports older adults in trouble-shooting and using their computers, smart phones, and other devices. Technical support is provided for free by Littleton high school students.
• In addition to the current practices of disseminating information via a variety of avenues and media, there is interest in ensuring information distributed is appropriately multi-lingual and that services accommodate hearing or visual impairments.
Community and Health Services
• Municipalities’ Councils on Aging and Elder Care Services provide preventative health care and well-ness services and programs, including those such as Tai Chi, blood pressure checks, falls prevention programming, and cooking demonstrations.
• There is interest in increasing the capacity of health services related to hoarding, mental health, po-diatry, and addiction. There is also interest in increasing the capacity of health professionals in un-derstanding geriatric needs and providing services.
Respect and Social Inclusion
• Efforts by municipalities in the region increase their capacity to responsibly and respectfully address the needs of older adults, and particularly those with memory issues. Among others, Concord and Littleton have provided dementia-friendly sensitivity training to first responders and the community. Acton is engaging restaurants in “Purple Table” training that provides diners with quieter and more predictable dining environments.
• There is interest in additional considerations for promoting respect and social inclusion of older adults, including programming that is LGBT friendly and avoiding marketing programming as ‘senior’ programming, and instead use language that describes the activity event. There is also interest in advertising to older adults about programs like “Purple Table” to increase awareness about them.
Social Participation
• Councils on Aging are active in the region in providing a range of opportunities for activities for older adults to socialize with peers and within the community.
• The region values and provides programming and events that promote educational, cultural and other opportunities including memory cafés, cable television exercise classes, low-cost lunch pro-grams, transportation services to facilitate participation.