Age Friendly City Initiative

Background

The City of East Palo Alto set out to become an City that provides a high quality of life for all by being accessible and enjoyable. To do this, we partnered with the Center for Age Friendly Excellence (CAFE), who have led the charge in assisting several other cities in the Bay Area achieve certified status. Their focus is on eight areas of livability and you can see them in the attachments provided on the page. As of June 2023, the City of East Palo was designated Age Friendly. What this means is that our city will have access to resources and knowledge from AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) and the communities surrounding us about what we can do to improve the functionality for all but especially the aging population.

To understand the process, here are the steps we took to earn the certification

Mayor Lisa Gauthier, Councilman Ruben Abrica, and City Staff met with the CAFE to discuss beginning the process of becoming an age friendly city
City staff worked with CAFE to set up Task Force including Councilmembers, Senior Advisory Committee leaders, East Palo Alto Senior Center Inc, and other key stakeholders who would provide the information and make community connections
CAFE completed multiple focus groups with individuals from diverse backgrounds that are representative of our city and took that information to complete both qualitative and quantitative reports (see attachments below)
Staff working with CAFE submitted their findings to AARP in hopes in being accepted in the Age Friendly program which was achieved

Next Steps

Your Community Services staff will continue to gather information that will be shared with the Senior Advisory Committee and other task forces that are focused on improving life for the Senior community. We will also be simultaneously moving forward with an Aging Master Plan in conjunction with CAFE. This master plan will be used to specifically identify the key areas where our city can make vital improvements for Seniors.