In cities and neighborhoods across America, residents of a certain age often face an unspoken yet peculiar and unrelenting feeling — a notion that the place in which they’ve proudly lived for so long is, simply put, no longer home.
Older adults face the typical changes that come with aging, such as no longer needing the two-story home when all the kids have grown up and moved out and needing a little extra help around the house with chores as physical limitations or health challenges arise.
But for others, the skyrocketing costs of everyday living, exodus of fellow long-time neighbors due to climbing property taxes and lack of programs and events tailored toward their age demographic are just a few of the many reasons why social isolation and other issues are quickly creeping into communities around the country with rising older-adult populations, Oak Park included.
Enter Aging in Communities, a village government commission that works to advise to address the evolving needs and interests in Oak Park’s ever-rising demographic and to develop a community-wide lens to identify not only programs and services for the town’s residents over 65, but raise awareness toward inclusivity and thriving community livability for everyone.
Marc Blesoff, who has called the village home for 40 years, is one of the commission’s founding members and currently serves as the group’s chairperson.
According to 2020 Census data, Oak Park residents over the age of 55 make up approximately 28.5% of the village’s population. With the growing number of older residents in mind, Blesoff says the timing has never been better to pay attention to the issue of healthy and mindful aging in the community.
“We are in a new phase for our species and the local implications are existential — we have added more longevity to our species since 1900 than all of previous civilization,” he said. “We cannot just do more of what we’ve been doing for the past 75 years — we must adjust to the new reality.”
That’s why the committee is hosting a special program on Thursday, Oct. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pilgrim Congregational Church (460 Lake St.) in recognition of Aging Awareness Day with Dr. Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and leading authority on how beliefs about aging influence health.
At the Ageism Awareness Day discussion, Levy will discuss an Oak Park research project and share how, as demonstrated in her 2022 book, “Breaking the Age Code,” people with positive age beliefs live an average of 7-and-a-half years longer than those who fear and deny aging.
Not only is Levy going to be speaking to Oak Parkers, but she’s also leading the charge on a special research project in town regarding the beliefs of older people in an effort to address both internalized ageism (from individuals) as well as systemic ageism (through local policies and culture).
Levy caught wind of Oak Park and its Aging in Communities commission after Blesoff read her book and reached out to her to pitch Oak Park as a possible future case study.
“In her book, she talks about a ‘town without ageism’ in Greensboro, Vermont,” he said. “I woke up one morning after finishing her book and thought, ‘what if Becca Levy used Oak Park as her guinea pig for research?’ Greensboro is rural, small, mostly white, mostly well-off, while Oak Park is larger, urban, and mixed — racially, culturally and economically. So, I sent her an email, she responded and we’ve been at it ever since.”
Levy’s project in Oak Park holds significance for a few reasons; one, because of her worldwide status in this field of study, and because a study of this type has never been done before.
In early September, Levy met with a special Action Community Engagement (ACE) Team, with members including Blesoff, Pamela Mahn (director of Oak Park Township’s Senior and Disability Services) and Monika Robinson (occupational therapy associate professor at Midwestern University and member of Aging in Communities).
With collaboration from two research project coordinators, the research project is based on a $200,000 private foundation grant and is composed of small groups of eight to 10 people facilitated by a group leader, which meets once a week for six one-hour sessions.
And, through engagement in local community projects and support from Aging in Communities’ existing community partnerships, the goal of the study is to establish a baseline, facilitate an intervention and see if there have been any changes since interventions have been put into place. Baseline research is expected to conclude at the end of October.
“Most people are hungry to talk about conscious aging and living with intention, especially after hearing or experiencing examples of a new vision of aging,” Blesoff said. “At this early stage of raising consciousness about this topic, it’s like planting seeds all over the place. The Levy research project will be like a watering can on those seeds.”