advice from the field

summary of Regional age-friendly, lifelong communities survey...

In March 2023, we conducted a survey of all the regional Age-Friendly, Lifelong Communities in Maine and New Hampshire. This summary is based on the responses we received. We welcome new responses at any time. To tell us about your regional initiative, click here: 

Note: Below, and throughout our site, underlined text indicates a live link.

WHEN DID YOU ORGANIZE AS A REGIONAL APPROACH?

All six regional Age-Friendly, Lifelong Communities were organized regionally from the beginning 

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE A REGIONAL APPROACH?

Typical comments:

• "the 5 towns …are a pretty coherent well-established community."

• "every community has similar challenges." 

• “We recognized the weakness of our municipal structures and that our service agencies, Chambers of Commerce, and other enterprises function on a regional level.” 

HOW MANY MUNICIPALITIES ARE INCLUDED IN YOUR REGIONAL APPROACH?

The number of towns in the six communities varied: 5, 6, 6, 9, 12, 26. 

PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR REGION

• • Age-Friendly Community Initiative, Bethel Region: rural, tourist destination with a hub town, mixed demographics

  • Age-Friendly Coastal Communities: coastal towns (Blue Hill Peninsula, Deer Isle)

  • Grateful Undead, Sacopee Valley: rural, conservative

  • Age-Friendly Communities of the Lower Kennebec, Bath area:  varied demographics, organized around a hub city

  • Mt. Washington Valley Age-Friendly: far-flung NH tourist region; mixed demographics

  • Aging Well in Waldo County: very mixed demographically; coastal towns and rural

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ORGANIZATION OF YOUR REGIONAL APPROACH?

• All volunteer:  

  • Age-Friendly Communities of the Lower Kennebec

  • Aging Well in Waldo County

• All volunteer/501(c)(3): 

  • Age-Friendly Community Initiative, Bethel Region 

  • Grateful Undead, Sacopee Valley

• Coordinated by a local organization that serves all of the communities: 

  • Age-Friendly Coastal Communities (Blue Hill Peninsula, Deer Isle and Stonington) 

  • Mt. Washington Valley Age-Friendly

IS EACH OF YOUR MEMBER MUNICIPALITIES AN INDEPENDENTLY ENROLLED MEMBER OF THE AARP NETWORK OF AGE-FRIENDLY STATES AND COMMUNITIES?

• All Towns are Members:

  • Age-Friendly Community Initiative, Bethel Region

  • Grateful Undead, Sacopee Valley

  • Age-Friendly Coastal Communities (Blue Hill Peninsula, Deer Isle and Stonington)

  • Mt. Washington Valley Age-Friendly

• All Towns are Not Members:

  • Age-Friendly Communities of the Lower Kennebec

  • Aging Well in Waldo County

PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY KIND OF FISCAL RELATIONSHIP/CONTRACT.

• Current Fiscal Relationship

  • Age-Friendly Community Initiative, Bethel Region:
    informal fiscal relationship. There is no contract or formula, each town pays a self-determined annual fee

  • Age-Friendly Communities of the Lower Kennebec, Bath area:  
    The City of Bath is the fiduciary agent

• No Fiscal Relationship: 

  • Age-Friendly Coastal Communities (Blue Hill Peninsula, Deer Isle)

  • Grateful Undead, Sacopee Valley

  • Mt. Washington Valley Age-Friendly

  • Aging Well in Waldo County

WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO BE THE BENEFITS AND DOWNFALLS OF THE REGIONAL APPROACH?

Examples of Benefits: 

• “broader base for volunteers and activities”

• “collaborations … larger impact … using natural leadership positions to set goals and reach them.”

• "support and resources from all municipal groups united and pulling in the same direction."

• "economies of scale and overlapping communities in such a rural area."

• “It’s the only feasible structure for our area … member towns contribute our only regular budget revenue. “

Ongoing Challenges: 

• “A county like ours is an abyss of needs.  We will never do more than make a small dent.”  

• “We probably currently don’t have enough active members to make a difference in the entire region.  The small towns already rely so heavily on volunteers for committees, serving on the select board, volunteer Fire Department, and the like.”

Examples of Downfalls: 

• • “requires more local efforts in the individual towns.”

  • “Even within our small community, there is significant diversity, and it’s a bit like herding cats.”

  • “It requires constant energy to keep re-defining our relevance to the individual towns … We are always careful not to let the smaller towns feel they’re getting less attention than the larger, hub town.“

WHAT SUGGESTIONS DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER PEOPLE CONSIDERING A REGIONAL APPROACH?

• • Know Your Community

    • “It’s not necessarily easy to combine towns in a collaborative unit.  Know your community!  What is the history and nature of the potential region you’re envisioning?  Know the local politics and demographics before considering the regional approach.  If it is not already positive, lay some good groundwork before embarking on the arrangement.  Avoid engendering a climate of competitiveness amongst your member towns.

    • "Make sure you have a common vision. We did a survey distributed within all 5 towns, and that was helpful in identifying needs and priorities."

  • Maintaining Municipal Ties

    • An inherent challenge in the regional approach is the “herding cats” syndrome.  How difficult will it be to keep the unit reasonably cohesive?  Are there long distances to cover in visiting the member towns?  Are there existing alliances or, conversely, touchy areas/issues?  Will you be able to keep in fairly close communication?  Our Age-Friendly, Lifelong Community has not solved, but addressed this through our defined structure of having a representative from each town on our Board (there’s one tiny town where that hasn’t been possible, but a designated Board member keeps in touch – and the town continues to pay an annual contribution to AFCI!)

    • "It's useful to maintain close ties to the municipal leaders, if possible, so they see the value of the work." 

  • Building Trust

    • "Showing government and individual community members how the regional work specifically helps their town is important."

    • Be transparent about your organization, keeping residents and town leaders, and administrators fully apprised of your goals, programs, and contributions to the community (an annual report is a good idea).  Invite town administrators to your organization’s meetings and engage in meaningful discussion, inviting administrators’ opinions.  Elaborate on what your organization can contribute to the town.  Our initiative often suggests that we can link towns to funding opportunities, even writing grant proposals for town projects. 

    •  One major example from our initiative: we received a 2021 AARP Challenge Grant, whose major purpose was to provide tangible benefits to our 6 towns, as a reminder of their membership in our Regional Age-Friendly, Lifelong Community.  The project capitalized on major in-kind donations from community members of all 6 towns.  A local volunteer group of retired men has, for many years, met weekly to construct simple furniture to donate to local non-profits.  For this project, they constructed a total of 18 benches and picnic tables, the Bethel Area Arts and Music group designed and painted lovely motifs on each (including checkerboards on the tables), and a local artisan made and donated beautiful copper plaques to commemorate all project contributors.  It was wildly successful, with benches and tables all across the local landscape.” 

  • Build the Strength of Partnerships

    • "Talk first to your local leaders of service agencies - VNS, hospital, schools, regional public health, librarians, pastors, conservationists, and Recreation Departments. Convince them that you are not in any way trying to tell them what to do but that you are trying to knit together the regional efforts and magnify the benefits and reach of the work they are doing."

  • Publicity, Publicity, Publicity

    • "Find the fastest, low-cost goals in whatever domains you choose - announce and celebrate those achievements." 

    • "Start a PR committee from the beginning to get your name and brand out there."

  • And a Word of Caution

    • "Find paid help. It’s really too big to have many problems solved by volunteers."

**** To read the individual survey responses, go to the Directory and click on "Read Survey Response"