Salem the model of an age-friendly city

A little over three years ago I had the honor of attending the ribbon-cutting of the new Mayor Jean Levesque Community Life Center in the city of Salem. Salem was, at that time, just about two years into implementation of its fiveyear age-friendly action plan, Salem for All Ages.

From the very start of Salem for All Ages to today, as the first five years come to a close, Salem’s community- based, collaborative effort to create a more welcoming city for people of all ages and abilities has become a model that other municipalities – in Massachusetts and in other states – have looked to in order to emulate. The supports and networks created by Salem for All Ages proved especially beneficial to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “Age-Friendly City” is one that strives to achieve the highest levels of accessibility and engagement across eight domains: housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, community supports and health services, communication and information, social participation, respect and social inclusion, and civic engagement and employment. It is not enough to simply identify how each domain intersects with a community’s older adult population, however. The purpose of the age-friendly action plan is to systemically examine where a community can improve in each domain in respect to serving residents of all ages, and then lay out an intentional roadmap of specific, measurable actions to complete that work.

Salem residents should be immensely proud of Salem for All Ages and how their city approached this initiative. Following a careful needs assessment, conducted in partnership with the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy at UMass-Boston, Salem set up a series of goals within each of the eight domains.

Responsibility for achieving those goals was vested in the Salem for All Ages Task Force – a group of community stakeholders, city staff, and volunteers – who met as a group and in subcommittees each focused on one of the domains. Broader guidance was provided by a leadership council of city leaders and elected officials, who helped keep the initiative true to its guiding principles and to Salem’s larger values as a community.

In September 2018, when I stood before the crowd of Salem residents gathered to celebrate the opening of the long-awaited Community Life Center, I saw a community dedicated to one another and committed to a vision of being a truly age-friendly and inclusive place. It was a celebration of just how important it is – and how hard it can be – to overcome the barriers confronting any community that tries to take on the systemic challenges of age- and accessibility-based bias.

It takes more than a building to do that, though, which is why Salem for All Ages was – and is – so critical to that work. That spirit and that effort continued on through programs, policies, and community dialogues created by Salem for All Ages. To the residents of Salem, congratulations on five years of the AARP Age-Friendly Community certification and best wishes for continued accomplishment in the future years of the valuable and successful Salem for All Ages initiative.

Michael Festa is AARP state director for Massachusetts.