The Community Foundation of Grundy County has convened and co-convened a number of networks over the years – agencies and organizations who provide services for a particular population in our county – in order to partner for solutions.
What’s been missing is a network of agencies who provide services to our county’s seniors. Therefore we began convening this Senior Network in July.
The goal of this Network is to assemble a list of existing services and amenities, identify gaps in services, and strategize and collaborate solutions.
But before we get too far into it, it would be nice to know what a community needs to be senior-friendly. Therefore we are excited to invite the community to “Challenges of the Future: Is Grundy County a Retirement-Friendly Community?”
This town hall meeting will be on Wednesday, October 1, at 4:00 pm at the Living Water Church of the Nazarene, 118 E. Jefferson Street (the old movie theater in downtown Morris).
Our guest speakers that day are Dr. Lisa Hollis-Sawyer, Gerontology Program Coordinator for Northeastern Illinois University, and Lucia Jones, Executive Director of the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging. Both speakers are experts on “Age in Place” and can help us better understand what services and amenities are needed in a community so that retirees can live a full life locally.
The mission of the Gerontology Program at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is to contribute to the quality of life of older adults through education, research, and community service. To that end, the program seeks to train practitioners through a broad education in the history, characteristics, and circumstances of this older population and prepare them to make a contribution to direct service, advocacy, and research.
The Agency on Aging was founded in 1974 and is a not-for-profit agency dedicated to combining resources, leadership and expertise on aging in DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
The Agency on Aging works closely with the U.S. Administration on Aging, Illinois Department on Aging and many other agencies to address both the immediate and long range needs of our region’s seniors. They are one of over 600 such agencies throughout the country, created by Congress, to implement the Older Americans Act and coordinate a wide variety of services for persons 60 and over.
The mission of the Agency on Aging is to strive to make aging easier through the development and promotion of a network of services for older persons designed to optimize the quality of their lives.
In addition to these guest speakers, members of our local Senior Network will be available to contribute to the conversation and provide local answers.
To date, senior transportation to this event has been arranged through the City of Morris. We haven’t yet secured transportation for seniors outside Morris, but we are working on it.
We invite seniors, their families, agencies, business, elected officials, our faith community, and the public in general to this event. It will be exciting to get tips from experts in order to improve our quality of life in Grundy County!!
Box:
Challenges of the Future: Is Grundy County a Retirement-Friendly Community?
Wednesday, October 1st
4:00-6:00 pm
Living Water Church of the Nazarene
118 E. Jefferson Street, Morris
Please RSVP to 815-941-0852 or [email protected]