Launch Pad Contest Seeks Five People With Great Ideas for Improving Their Communities

Five winners age 45 and over will receive $5,000 and Encore.org resources to get their ideas for social good off the ground

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – November 16, 2010 – Today Civic Ventures announced its new Launch Pad contest (http://launchpad.encore.org/), which is designed to discover five inspiring people 45 and over with ideas to improve their communities. Each winner will receive $5,000 and resources and support from the Encore.org community to put his or her idea into action. 

Launch Pad is a project of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.  Civic Ventures runs The Purpose Prize to invest in social innovators over 60; works in a variety of ways to promote encore careers combining purpose, passion and a paycheck; and offers advice and resources for people seeking encore careers on Encore.org. 

Launch Pad contenders from around the country can submit their ideas on how they want to make a difference in their communities at http://launchpad.encore.org/ starting today through December 20.

On January 17, 2011, Civic Ventures will name 25 Launch Pad semifinalists. From January 17 through February 14, people will be invited to vote online for the idea they’d like to see realized.

Contestants can submit ideas in the following Launch Pad categories: education, social services, environment, health care and helping others engage in encore careers.

The announcement of the Launch Pad contest follows last week's news of the 2010 Purpose Prize winners, 10 people over age 60 who are making extraordinary contributions in their encore careers. The Purpose Prize, an award of up to $100,000, is given annually to individuals who are using their experience and passion to tackle society’s biggest challenges.

For more information on the Launch Pad contest, visit http://launchpad.encore.org/.

Launch Pad and The Purpose Prize are supported by grants from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.

Aging Texas Well Plan 2010-2011

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The Aging Texas Well (ATW) Plan is submitted to the governor by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) as required by Executive Order RP 42.

This 2010-11 Plan is the response to the RP 42 mandate that DADS create and disseminate a comprehensive and effective working plan to identify and discuss aging policy issues, guide state government readiness and promote increased community preparedness for an aging Texas. RP 42 also mandates that DADS update the plan biennially and evaluate and report on its implementation.

The plan details the elements of the ATW initiative and establishes objectives within each of the key focus areas identified by RP 42 mandates. During the />2010-11 biennium, with guidance from the Aging Texas Well Advisory Committee (ATWAC), DADS will address the areas of focus outlined in RP 42.

Federal Transit Administration - FTA Announces Launch of Livable and Sustainable Communities Website

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The Federal Transit Administration recently launched a new Livable and Sustainable Communities Website -- an important step in FTA’s efforts to advance the Department of Transportation’s Livability Initiative and the Interagency Sustainable Communities Partnership. This website can be viewed at: www.fta.dot.gov/livability.

The website provides information about the Department of Transportation’s role in livability and sustainable communities, the interagency partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development, and how FTA is supporting these exciting new initiatives. Specifically, FTA has reworked its transit-oriented and joint development webpage, included information on transit and environmental sustainability, highlighted efforts on affordable housing near transit, and provided case studies that can be used by transit agencies and communities around the nation as they plan to make their cities and towns livable.

FTA is uniquely positioned to contribute to these initiatives as many of its programs inherently support livability and sustainable communities. Transit provides critical services that connect all members of the community, rural and urban, with employment, health, educational, and other important opportunities and services. On the website, FTA has provided a key webpage that lists FTA’s grant programs as they relate to livability. This list includes major grant programs, such the Urbanized Area Formula Program, as well as programs that focus on specialized services, such as those serving seniors and people with disabilities.

FTA will continue to expand on the assistance we provide the transportation industry to build the principles of livability and sustainability into communities around our Nation.

For Senior Care, Sometimes It Does Take A Village - Kaiser Health News

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By Howard Gleckman

Nearly three years ago, Harry Rosenberg and his wife, Barbara Filner, met with nine of their neighbors about starting an aging-in-place "village" in the Burning Tree community of Bethesda, Maryland. The idea: If neighbors could help one another with basic services such as transportation and simple home maintenance and with friendly visits, people could stay in their homes longer as they aged. It took 19 months of planning and organizing, but Burning Tree Village accepted its first request for assistance in November of 2008: helping an 81-year-old widow take out her trash and driving her to the doctor.

The group is still suffering growing pains. It receives only a handful of requests for help. Like some similar organizations, it charges no dues and it has about 65 "friends": people who volunteer, people who receive help, people who just want to be associated. It operates on a shoestring $4,000 budget raised from donations, but it has held a series of well-attended community events, including neighborhood walks and restaurant outings. "We are," says Rosenberg, 73, "a viable presence in the neighborhood."

The Washington D.C. area has become a hotbed for these villages. There are six in the city itself, at least two in the Virginia suburbs and eight in various stages of development in the Maryland suburbs. "The idea has spread like wildfire," says Naomi Kaminsky, president of one, Chevy Chase at Home.

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Letter - Helping the Rural Elderly - NYTimes.com

Jo Ivey Boufford's Letter to the Editor in the New York Times:

Re “For Rural Elderly, Times Are Distinctly Harder” (front page, Dec. 10):

The daunting challenges facing the rural elderly highlight America’s failure to embrace the overwhelming needs of this rapidly growing population.

A lack of transportation, cuts in home health care services, and the growing desire of many elderly to age in place for as long as possible are just the tip of the iceberg.

Equally important but often overlooked is the risk of social isolation faced by the elderly who live alone, both in rural and urban environments. Seniors who are isolated from family, friends and their communities face the risk of developing mental illness, depression and other diseases of the brain.

Many cities, with encouragement from the World Health Organization, are developing age-friendly initiatives for all seniors, regardless of their location. Specifically, they seek to improve transportation, housing, social inclusion, community support and health services.

Each community has a responsibility to help its seniors age with the resources, community support and dignity they so richly deserve. The costs of doing so are minimal compared with the consequences of treating this population as out of sight, out of mind.

Jo Ivey Boufford

New York, Dec. 11, 2009

The writer, a doctor and president of the New York Academy of Medicine, helped initiate Age-Friendly New York City, a plan by New York City to address the needs of the elderly.