All Fayettevillians are invited to participate in the Age-Friendly Fayetteville Initiative, a collaboration between the University of Arkansas, the city of Fayetteville and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce to earn the World Health Organization designation as an Age Friendly Community.

Participants are being sought for focus groups to explore perceptions of Fayetteville’s status as welcoming and accommodating throughout the lifespan. Participants should be 45 years of age or older, and identify with Fayetteville as the place where they live, work, or play. One focus group will be held on campus, to facilitate participation by university community members. However, participation in any group is welcome. The full schedule is at the bottom of the page.

The University of Arkansas Age-Friendly Fayetteville focus group will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in Room 315 of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building.

Contact them at aff@uark.edu or 479-316-5677 to sign up, or for more information.

By the year 2020, it is expected that 1 in 4 people will be over 65 years old. The majority of older adults prefer to remain in their homes and maintain an independent lifestyle, but this is not possible without creating social, political, and economic environments and structures that are supportive of aging in a community. An age-friendly city encourages active ageing by optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age.  In practical terms, an age-friendly city adapts its structures and services to be accessible to and inclusive of older people with varying needs and capacities.

Spearheaded by Jean Henry, associate professor of public health, and Alishia Ferguson, clinical associate professor of social work, the initiative is a five-year process that starts with a community-wide needs assessment to find out present status, then asks the residents, themselves, what is currently being doing well, what their ideal age-friendly city would look like, and what needs to be done to get to an optimum level.

The WHO goal is to provide guidance to communities in creating sustainable environments that promote healthy, active aging. The WHO model focuses on eight domains for consideration:  Housing, Transportation, Outdoor spaces and buildings, Community support and health services, communication and information, civic participation and employment, Respect and social inclusion, and Social participation.

The focus groups are a key part of the needs assessment phase of AFF. Following the focus groups, in April 2015, the project team will initiate community-wide distribution of surveys to provide more opportunity for Fayettevillians to be heard. Using information collected from focus groups and surveys, as well as secondary data, working groups of seniors, experts, and city leaders will be convened in Fall 2015. The working groups will develop a Blue Print within each of the eight WHO domains. These Blue Prints will be action plans that contain recommendations to residents, service providers, businesses, and city leaders, alike, for improving policy, practice, and culture in Fayetteville.

Participants are still being sought for all focus groups!  Six more focus groups are scheduled in February and March; 10-12 participants are needed for each group. Groups last about 1½ hours, and are held in various locations around the city, all with convenient parking. The full schedule appears below. As seating is limited, an RSVP is necessary for participation.

The group wants to hear your views about how to become a more Age-Friendly Fayetteville!

Join us for an upcoming focus group:

• Monday Feb. 16, 6 p.m.
• Friday Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m.
• Thursday March 5, 5:30 p.m. – HPER 315
• Saturday March 7, 10 a.m.
• Friday March 13, 9:30 a.m.
• Monday March 16, 3 p.m.

All venues are centrally located and will offer convenient parking for Fayettevillians.

Contact the group at aff@uark.edu or 479-316-5677 to sign up, or for more information.

About the Age-Friendly Fayetteville Initiative Project Team

The AFF Project Team is led by Henry and Ferguson. A number of graduate and undergraduate students have made, and continue to make significant contribution to the initiative; in particular, Jonathan Langner, Public Policy; Page Daniel, Sarah Moore, and Mona Mardanbigi, Public Health; and Mark Swafford, Jonathan Shannon, Megan Kale-Cheever, and Mai Lee, Social Work. In the near future, Ferguson and Henry will be recruiting interested community members and content experts to serve on Working Groups that will develop and draft a Blue Print of recommendations for the city and community, in the eight WHO domains.

If you want to learn more about the Age-Friendly Fayetteville initiative, check us out at agefriendlyfayetteville.uark.edu or on Facebook.