What are we doing?
In January 2019, a group of local seniors formed the Carbondale Age-Friendly Community Initiative (CAFCI) with the goals of:
- Ensuring that the town’s residents are visible and vocal in town planning and civic issues, and
- Helping the town trustees to better assess and understand the needs and issues of Carbondale’s aging population.
Planning Tool: The Eight Domains of Livability
For its planning, CAFCI has used the Eight Domains of Livability framework developed by the World Health Organization.
That framework is being used by AARP in assisting communities nationwide to become more age-friendly by focusing on areas such as housing, caregiving, community engagement, volunteering, social inclusion and combating isolation among older citizens. Using the 8 domains, CAFCI completed an informal survey of local senior resources early in its working life. The Town of Carbondale has published that list of resources on a residents’ page entitled “For Seniors” on the town’s website.
As of July, 2019, 12 Colorado counties and municipalities belong to AARP’s network of age-friendly communities, including nearby Eagle and Pitkin Counties and the town of Fruita. The State of Colorado joined in September of 2018, when Governor Hickenlooper announced a statewide program called “Lifelong Colorado.” Carbondale is the 12th Colorado member and the first to initiate “Age-Friendly'” at the grass-roots level.
