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After years of focus groups, community meetings and conversations with consultants – senior services in East Palo Alto are slated for change.
East Palo Alto hired a consultant to survey all of its senior services in March and recently rolled out a five-year Age-friendly Action Plan in an attempt to improve communication, social services and community programming for older adults.
The percentage of older adults across the nation is growing, but San Mateo and Santa Clara County are seeing those rates increase even more due to lower birth rates and longer life expectancies.
Approximately 21% of the California population was 60 or older in 2022, and in San Mateo county about 25% of the population was 60 or older. By 2034, seniors are set to outnumber children under 18 in the United States, according to city documents.
The need for senior services is growing by the year, and East Palo Alto partnered in 2023 with the Center for Age Friendly Excellence, also known as CAFE, in order to improve senior services. The task force, composed of City Council members, city staff and Senior Advisory Committee members, worked to host various listening sessions before East Palo Alto was designated an age-friendly city in June 2023.
In order to become an age-friendly city, as designated by the World Health Organization, a city must begin assessing a community’s age-friendliness and developing an action plan before implementing and evaluating new initiatives.The designation allows the city to better connect with the AARP for knowledge and resourcing.
There are eight pillars to age-friendly designation: outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, communications and participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, and community support and health services.
Based on various listening sessions in 2023 and 2024, East Palo Alto opted to focus on communication and social participation in its age-friendly plan.
Under communications, city staff hope to bridge the digital divide and keep in touch with more seniors.
The city plans to create a tech hub at the East Palo Alto Senior Center, where residents can access computers, free WiFi and staff members who can provide technological assistance. Staff also hope to reach more seniors by better updating community calendars and message boards, making announcements at churches, calling individuals and distributing more flyers. Messaging may address a wider variety of subjects such as emergency preparedness, affordable housing and health.
East Palo Alto’s senior center reduced programming after COVID-19, but the five-year plan hopes to reinstate various classes and install new ones including tai chi, Zumba, bocce ball, singing, sewing and other mobility-related events. Staff also hope to provide multicultural events, increased field trips, movies and concerts.
In order to create more age-friendly public spaces and boost participation, the city plans to provide more seating areas in parks and study transportation services and walkability.
“More older adults would go to the Senior Center and attend activities in general if there was transportation for them, such as a shuttle designated for seniors,” one resident wrote in a city survey.
The age-friendly plan is set to conclude in 2028, but the goals are active and may change with further city assessment and feedback.
East Palo Alto also began a comprehensive assessment in March of all city senior resources, including the age-friendly plan.
“Every five years, the Senior Center Inc. is supposed to have an evaluation or a review of the operating agreement and that has not happened very many times in the relationship of the senior center,” Community Services Manager Maurice Baker said at a January senior advisory meeting.
The evaluation, led by San Diego State University’s Center for Excellence Aging and Liveability, will survey the senior center, meal programs, transportation, housing and the advisory committee among other resources.
The consultant is currently working on Phase Two of the assessment, which includes data collection and focus groups with local seniors, caregivers, committee members and staff. Throughout October, consultants will compare East Palo Alto services to those in other municipalities, complete a strategic framework and eventually approve a 10-year senior master plan.
