Document Type
Research Report
Publication Date
9-2015
Abstract
This planning study was conducted to investigate current and anticipated needs, interests, preferences, and concerns of Boxford adults aged 45 and older. Special emphasis is placed on gauging future age-related services needed by residents, including those provided by the Boxford Council on Aging and its Senior Center (hereafter, COA), as well as the existing physical infrastructure of the COA relative to these service needs now and in the future. A primary focus of this study was whether Boxford is a town where lifelong residents will feel supported in later life.
The goals of the project were (1) to identify the current services offered to Boxford seniors, how these service needs will grow in the next 20 years, and whether Boxford will need to add new programs; and (2) to examine the adequacy of the current Senior Center space relative to addressing current and future service needs, based on projected needs 10 and 20 years from now. This study considered the characteristics and needs of Boxford residents age 45 to 59 (the cohort referred to hereafter as “Future Users”) and age 60 and over (hereafter, “Seniors”); to identify specific concerns of community members related to aging in Boxford, and make explicit their ideas regarding how quality of life could be improved for older adults who live in Boxford; to explore the current and potential role of the Senior Center in the lives of older residents; and to outline the implications of an aging population for the Town of Boxford as a whole. The contents of this report are intended to aid planning by the COA, , as well as other Town offices, private and public organizations that provide services and advocate for older people within Boxford, and the community at large. By proactively taking steps to support the goals of older adults in terms of successful aging and aging-in-place, a community may retain a larger share of its older population in the community and benefit from the experiences and local commitment that vital long-term residents offer.
Community Engaged/Serving
Part of the UMass Boston Community-Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Series. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/engage
Recommended Citation
Silverstein, Nina and Coyle, Caitlin, "Aging in Boxford: Planning for an ‘active and involved’ future" (2015). Gerontology Institute Publications. 112.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/gerontologyinstitute_pubs/112
Comments
Commissioned by the Town of Boxford Council on Aging. Prepared by the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging and by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston.