The University of Maine Center on Aging (UMaine CoA), Lifelong Maine program is honored to work with Maine's Age-Friendly, Communities.
Mission: To promote the value of older Mainers, spark community conversations, and foster age-friendly communities. We:
Promote the value of older Mainers in communities through local leadership development and peer mentorship.
Spark essential conversations about reshaping communities to become places where everyone can contribute and thrive.
Provide technical and programmatic support to help age-friendly initiatives reach their goals for a more age, ability, and dementia-inclusive future.
Vision: Maine communities are more responsive to longer healthier lives and inclusive of people living with chronic illness or disabilities so that people of all ages and abilities can live active, healthy, socially engaged lives.
Values:
Lifelong Maine shines a light on grassroots, resident-led initiaves, believing that residents, working with their municipality and local organizations, have what they need to plan and implement the changes they seek for their community.
Life Maine believes that regional partners have a role to support and foster resident-led change.
Lifelong Maine fosters municipal engagement in age-friendly, understanding the key role of local government in creating age-friendly environments.
Lifelong Maine celebrates and values the diversity among and within Maine communities. We are stronger when diverse voices shape Lifelong Maine and how we practice age-friendly in our cities, towns, and regions.
Lifelong Maine leads by stepping back to support community-led initiatives efforts to make their community age, ability, and dementia inclusive.
Who We Are: Currently, 90 municipalities have structured their approaches to developing a more age-inclusive community by joining the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. Dozens more are following a similar path without formally joining the AARP Network. These are some of the ways that we support these communities:
Monthly networking and peer learning opportunities
Bi-Annual regional meet-ups for communities in one of five "regions" in Maine
Annual state-wide gatherings
Promotional support, including stickers and refrigerator magnets with your Lifelong Community logo
Technical assistance to identify funding and to plan and implement local change
And more!
An up-to-date listing of our meetings can be found in the Lifelong Maine Community calendar.
The Lifelong Maine Communities Fellows Program and the Lifelong Maine AmeriCorps program were developed to support communities starting their age-friendly journey or implementing change. For more information about either program, click the links below:
Our Leadership Team consists of paid staff and ten volunteers who serve on the UMaine Center on Aging Lifelong Communities Advisory Group, nine experienced Age-Friendly and Lifelong Community leaders from throughout Maine who generously contribute their experience, knowledge, and connections to guide the Center on Aging's work with Lifelong Communities.
Without the support of partners, Maine's Age-Friendly, Lifelong communities would not have been to develop programs, activities, and services that foster positive health, social participation. and health equity. We are deeply grateful to our partners in this work.
Note: Throughout our site, underlined text indicates a live link.