Caring Neighborhoods
Caring Neighborhoods is the City of Sacramento's effort for encouraging neighbors to engage the older folks around them--to chat, check in, and maybe even lend a hand from time to time. These connections reinforce the social fabric and support independent community living.
“Numerous studies have led to wide-ranging conclusions about the importance of social relationships to individual good health. I refer to it as community, or circles of care, and believe that its creation within neighborhoods is crucial to all residents across the life span.”
- Dr. Robert Butler, physician, gerontologist, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and founding director of the National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health
Sacramento is a city of neighborhoods. Many residents of these neighborhoods are growing older and are facing the challenges of living independently and no longer feel connected to the communities they live in. In Sacramento, approximately 47,551 people are over 65. Thirty percent of those are over 80 years old.
The aim of Caring Neighborhoods program is to strengthen neighborhood connections and promote community support to a growing elderly population. We recognize the need for a creative response to a situation where the population over 65 is growing yet we live in a culture that tends to make older people invisible. At the neighborhood level, people have become more disconnected than ever due to the general stress of living and managing our busy lives. We may not even notice the older neighbor struggling to carry their groceries from the car to the house.
Age Together Now Aging Awareness Campaign
Goals
Our Guiding Principles
Encouraging Individuals to Form Caring Neighborhoods Groups
Promoting Awareness of Issues about Aging in the Community
age together now aging awareness campaign
Support age-inclusiveness and interdependence, and reduce isolation and alienation in the communities where you live. Here are some of the things you can do.
Goals
- To make older people more visible in society
- To encourage more conscious courtesy and inclusion of older people in everyday activities and civic affairs
- To help people understand the importance of neighborliness and that everyone has a role in supporting the older population living in the community
- To make people aware of ageism and how it operates in society and to question their own views about aging since we all will experience it if we are able to live that long
- To promote Caring Neighborhoods groups
Our guiding principles
- Healthy communities involve connections across the generations.
- Without community support, some older residents may become isolated and this can lead to depression and general decline.
- Informal networks of informed neighbors assisting elder neighbors with small tasks and periodic social visits can promote safe and independent living and enrich the lives of all involved.
- Without an active awareness campaign, elderly people can become invisible and their need for participation and support can be overlooked.
Encouraging individuals to form Caring Neighborhoods groups
We encourage Sacramento neighborhoods to form small, informal groups, similar to Neighborhood Watch, only with a focus on becoming involved with elders. Neighbors can join together to offer assistance such as simple yard or household tasks and weekly friendly visits. Find out more about how you can Set up a Caring Neighborhoods Group.
Promoting awareness of issues about aging in the community
In addition, we are actively promoting awareness of these issues in many ways throughout the City, with media, and on this site. View this page for our latest topics about aging in the community that may be useful to you, your family, older friends, or your organization: News from Caring Neighborhoods
According to AARP, for the next 18 years, baby boomers will be turning 65 at the rate of 8000 a day! We, as a society, can no longer ignore what some call this “age wave”. We want to do our part in addressing this population shift by helping to bring about Caring Neighborhoods for the elderly in our community.