The baby boomer generation seeks retirement options to enhance their lifestyle choices. For many, it is highly desirable to retire in the home where they have resided for decades. Equally important, many wish to remain part of an inter-generational environment while living active, independent, and social lives in a familiar neighborhood.”
“Village Concept Promotes Aging in Place,” Aging Well Magazine
Visits to their parents in sterile, regimented assisted living or nursing homes are leaving boomers dismayed. They want better choices for Mom — and for themselves. While they may be a decade or more away from needing care, they’re overhauling or honing traditional models and inventing new ones.”
“Boomers Redefine Retirement Living,”AARP Bulletin 2011
People are saying, ‘Huh-uh, we’re not doing what our parents did. We’re not going to be institutionalized,’ said Mt Vernon-at-Home executive director Jeff Reed.”
“Villages Take Root Around Virginia,” AARP 09/2010
In choosing how they want to age, and where, boomers are helping shape the future of housing. The common denominator in existing and still-to-be-created models, say experts, is the desire to be part of a community that shares common interests, values or resources. People want to live where neighbors know and care about one another and will help one another as they age.”
“Boomers Redefine Retirement Living,” AARP Bulletin 2011
Baby Boomers who are dealing with the financial burden and emotional guilt of putting their parents in retirement homes also are driving the movement. The village concept gives ‘peace of mind to children of older adults,’ says Cynthia Muller, director of strategic investments at NCB Capital Impact.”
“Villages let elderly grow old at home,”USA Today 2010
In its own quiet way, the village movement represents a radical rejection of the postwar American ideal of aging, in which retirees discard homes and careers for lives of leisure amid people their own age. That’s the life Eleanor and Jim McQueen turned their backs on when they joined Monadnock at Home (their local village).
“To dump 40 years of building a home to move into a condominium doesn’t appeal to me at all,” Jim says. “The idea of Monadnock at Home is, I won’t have to.”
“Aging in Place…It Takes a Village”
[One of the founders] said that she wanted to start Wash Park Cares because ‘The only way I’ll leave this house in a black bag.’ She goes on to say that some of the over age 55 folks who live in the neighborhood tell her that they plan to join the group later, “when they need it.” Apparently these people don’t realize that the group could benefit them now with discounts at associated businesses, referrals to service providers that they can trust for big and small jobs around the house, and expanded social and volunteer opportunities right in the neighborhood where they live.
Additionally, joining now would enable new members to influence how this young organization will grow, as well as ensuring that the group is still here when they do need it. Co-founder Bill Eichelberger told us that sometimes it is the caregivers of aging parents who see the need more clearly. They have received calls from adult children as far away as Florida who believe enrolling their parents now to be a desirable alternative to a move to assisted living down the road.”
“Aging in Place…It Takes a Village”
