Aging in Place

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The IDeA Center’s Rural Aging in Place Initiative

Less than half of all U.S. communities are planning for the aging of their populations and rural models for aging in place are few. Policymakers and funders have focused on developing urban models although 21 percent of the U.S. population and 8 percent of New Yorkers live in rural areas. To fill this gap in policymaking and development of replicable models for rural aging in place, the IDeA Center is working with communities in two parts of the Adirondacks, New York State’s least populated area and home to some of its most isolated towns and communities. This website will feature tools for planning and project development and best practices of rural communities taking steps to plan for aging in place.

Rural areas are aging in the context of a society that is aging as a whole. With a little planning, the issues faced by rural residents will be no more daunting than the challenges we have already faced over the past century. The society that faced the birth of the Baby Boom generation and adjusted to large numbers of children moving through schools, the labor force, housing, product and financial markets is likely to face the challenge of aging equally as well. The adjustment will be easier if we face them in a rational manner, and understand the realities, not the myths, of aging.