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Contact: Jim Peavey (gtagefriendly@gmail.com)
Joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities: 2018-06-19
Structure: Part of the Regional Age-Friendly Communities of the Lower Kennebec
with a local all-volunteer central leadership team
Highlight of 2023. We partner with Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program's Merrymeeting Gleaner program to provide fresh, local produce every week from late spring into late October. This free service delivers vegetables and fruit to over 30 households. We also have inspired local gardeners to share produce from their own gardens expanding our offerings.
Age-Friendly Georgetown's Initiatives and Accomplishments:
Communication and Information
We have an email distribution of over 450 people in a town of just over 1,000. We send out information on health, safety, town events, weather alerts, educational opportunities, needs for support and more. Hint for growing your email distribution list: We have been able to grow our email list in response to new interest around storm impact and resources. We also learned that our local library on-forwards our emails to their own list which include ~20 that are not already on the Age-Friendly Georgetown list. Also of note, we have learned that Arrowsic is forwarding our emails to their network, which they said included 200-300 more.
Working with the National Digital Equity Center, we instituted a training program for computer, tablet and cell phone use. We held in-person sessions locally until the pandemic interrupted that, and shifted to on-line training. Now that COVID restrictions have lifted, we are working to have local training once again.
Community Supports and Health Services
Nutrition Support: During the summer & fall season, we provide a Gleaning Table with fresh, local produce. We serve ~30 residents each week and deliver to those who can't make it to the table
We created an educational program about services and devices that can ease challenges with Activities of Daily Living. We procured a large number of sample devices and made a display board we take to events and organizations to demonstrate how these may help.
Housing
Our town experienced a significant town-wide power outage this past winter and this spurred us to create an emergency contact system so anyone who wanted to have someone check in on them during the outage would receive an email, phone call, or personal visit to ensure they were safe and comfortable.
To assist folks who are no longer able to do certain things around the house, we formed the Age-Friendly Job Squad. We have many volunteers available to provide support and have accomplished over 120 jobs to date.
Home Heating Purchasing Group: To help folks deal with the high cost of heating our homes, we partnered with local fuel suppliers to create a buying group to obtain lower rates. Residents have reported annual savings in the hundreds of dollars in savings.
Outdoor Spaces and Public Buildings
We created an "easy access" nature trail to provide a walk in the woods for those with limited mobility.
Respect and Social Inclusion
To encourage interaction between the generations and to connect local children with older residents we have had a number of activities to bring them together, including making and delivery of Thanksgiving and Easter baskets, creating scrapbooks showing how kids can assist older friends and neighbors, and including them in our Trekking activities.
Social Participation
We formed Georgetown Trekkers to provide folks opportunities to exercise and enjoy the many local nature preserves.
Transportation (including promotion of active transportation
As part of People Plus's Volunteer Transportation Network, we provide rides to those without their own transportation.
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