Age Friendly Anniversary

One year ago, on March 8th 2016, Colorado Springs officially joined the Network of Age Friendly Communities! This day, marking our commitment to becoming a city that welcomes and supports people of all ages, was just the beginning.

Here’s a look back at that day as we accepted our certification:

In the last year we have made so much progress toward building a safer, healthier, and happier community for our residents, whether they are eight or eighty. Here are a few of our accomplishments:

• Community surveys and meetings to assess current strengths and needs of seniors in our region
• Drafting, approval, and release of the Age Friendly Report and Action Plan
• Presentation of the Report and Action Plan to the Mayor
• Kickoff celebration at Acacia Park, September 8th, 2016
• The Livable Communities Forum, November 3rd, 2016
• Age Friendly Business Certification with the Better Business Bureau
• Launch of the ONEN iVillage in October, 2016
• Project Visibility training hosted in Colorado Springs
• Beginning of local work on the Conversation Project
• Catalyzed collaboration of the Senior Center and Concrete Couch for intergenerational art programs
• Monitoring Senior Center programming being implemented at local YMCAs
• Encouraging development of the Senior Ambassador Program with Mountain Metro
• Participation in community coalition to encourage our CDOT Commissioner to push for more multimodal transportation funding in Colorado Springs
• Work with the Mayor to create a Commission on Aging, attached to City Council

Our City is more Age Friendly than it was a year ago, but we still have a lot of work to do. Thank you so much for your support so far- we couldn’t have done it without you! We look forward to working with you more as we implement the rest of the Age Friendly Action Plan!