Villages are local, geographically-centered, volunteer-led organizations that bring people together and coordinate volunteer help to support aging-in-place using a neighbor-helping-neighbor model. Villages create a space for members to stay connected, engaged, and active in the community.

Examples of how village volunteers support their members may include:

• Social activities and friendly visits to reduce isolation
• Light home chores after a hospitalization
• Picking up prescriptions and transportation to medical appointments

Suburban Hospital promotes healthy aging through a portfolio of comprehensive initiatives, programs, events, and classes. In 2016, Suburban further enhanced its support of aging initiatives by establishing the Village Ambassador Alliance (VAA). Its goal is to advance the common mission of helping community members successfully age-in-place.

The Village Ambassador Alliance has created a space for Villages to support health and well-being through: creating communication channels, delivering health education and training, and the effective utilization of community resources. Since its inception, the VAA has issued three rounds of Advances in Aging grant funding and has offered numerous forums and lectures during which speakers from specialty health fields provide education in support of topics to help adults age independently and empowered. Many of these webinars have been in partnership with local villages, who have leveraged the voices of their leadership and members to identify topics of interest and promote the event.

Examples of health education topics are below:

• Integrative Health and Functional Medicine: A Solution for Healthy Living
• Lifestyle Factors Affecting the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
• Maintaining Mental Health as You Age
• Neurology of Loss
• OTC Hearing Aids: Are They Right for You?
• Parkinson’s Disease: Practical Management and Popular Questions
• Recent Advances in Alzheimer’s Disease
• Rethinking How We Age
• The Benefits of Palliative Care
• Tune in to Telemedicine
• UTIs in Older Adults: Prevention, Symptoms, and Treatment
• What is a Hospitalist?
• What to Expect During a Hospital Stay?

Suburban Hospital invites any new or existing Village to join the Village Ambassador Alliance. One to two members of Village leadership will be included on a VAA listserv to stay connected to upcoming events and resources, and are encouraged share those resources widely with their members. Any interested member of the community may receive the monthly newsletter that includes free and low-cost resources for aging well. Email Kate McGrail at [email protected] to be added. To read this month’s Older Adult Resource Newsletter, please click here.

For those who are not currently connected to a Village, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) supports a map to help you identify whether you live in a neighborhood with an existing village; type an address in the upper right hand corner of a map to search. To learn more about DHHS and its support of the village movement, click here.