{"id":1312207,"date":"2019-07-08T19:15:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T01:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=983384"},"modified":"2019-07-09T08:23:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T14:23:39","slug":"carbondale-group-hopes-to-spark-elder-friendly-revolution-in-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/carbondale-group-hopes-to-spark-elder-friendly-revolution-in-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbondale group hopes to spark elder-friendly revolution in valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
People of all ages make their way through downtown Glenwood Springs past local shops on a cloudy Monday afternoon. Area communities are recognizing the need to make their town’s more aging friendly.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self\/Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A group of Carbondale seniors is not waiting around for other people to make their lives easier.<\/p>\n

What the Carbondale Age-Friendly Community Initiative<\/a> has done in the past six months might seem small now. But after forming in January, they have caused quite a stir and have started inspiring others in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

The group has marshaled dozens of volunteers to distribute bicycle bells to encourage safety on shared pathways. They worked with the Department of Transportation to extend the audible walk signal for the crosswalk at a busy intersection on Highway 133.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re working with the town of Carbondale to install new benches along some paths (CAFCI will purchase the benches through grants and donations, and the town will install them).<\/p>\n

And, they\u2019ve joined the AARP\u2019s list of age-friendly communities.<\/p>\n

Carbondale\u2019s AARP designation is unique. Most of the time, it\u2019s the government working through the AARP\u2019s age-friendly program, but CAFCI is spearheading the effort for Carbondale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see ourselves as doing everything, we see ourselves as a connector, as a catalyst,\u201d said Judie Blanchard, one of CAFCI\u2019s founding members.<\/p>\n

The successes in a short period of time are helpful, and CAFCI is only just getting started. But the real revolution is in the group\u2019s approach to the problems facing seniors in small and rural towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s exciting to watch a group of seniors get together, see a problem, propose solutions, and actually work with the community to solve it,\u201d said Judy Martin, manager of Garfield County\u2019s senior program.<\/p>\n

The population of people over 65 years of age is expected to increase by 60 percent over the next 10 years, according to the Greater Roaring Fork Regional Housing Study<\/a>, released in April.<\/p>\n

With more older folks in the area, there will be more need for local towns to be walkable, with good transportation options, affordable housing, access to medical care, and so on.<\/p>\n

CAFCI member Ron Kokish is clear-eyed and frank about the issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a problem for us, because as we grow older we need more and more stuff. And it\u2019s a problem for the people behind us, because we didn\u2019t make enough of them \u2014 There\u2019s less and less of them to take care of this large aging population,\u201d Kokish said.<\/p>\n

Demanding services from the government is fraught with conflict, Kokish said, so CAFCI has a better approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the solution to all those problems. But our approach is: We\u2019re not all disabled and senile yet. As long as we can, we need to contribute to the solutions to those problems for our own sake as well as society\u2019s sake,\u201d Kokish said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the approach Martin would like to encourage elsewhere in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my hopes is to have similar groups in each of the cities and towns throughout the county,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

The Garfield County commissioners have also signed a letter of support to seek AARP\u2019s age-friendly designation, and Martin is finalizing the application.<\/p>\n

Pitkin and Eagle counties are already members, as is the state of Colorado. The AARP provides resources to audit an area\u2019s age-friendliness and implement improvement plans over five years.<\/p>\n

Niki Delson, another founding CAFCI member, welcomes the involvement of seniors from other towns in the grassroots approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to become a network of age-friendly communities up and down the Roaring Fork Valley \u2014 not just age-friendly in name, but in reality \u2014 so that all we\u2019re working together and talking together,\u201d Delson said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People of all ages make their way through downtown Glenwood Springs past local shops on a cloudy Monday afternoon. Area communities are recognizing the need to make their town’s more aging friendly.Chelsea Self\/Post Independent A group of Carbondale seniors is not waiting around for other people to make their lives easier. What the Carbondale Age-Friendly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 08:38:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312225,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312207\/revisions\/1312225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}