Villages are “community-based, nonprofit, grassroots organizations formed through a cadre of caring neighbors who want to change the paradigm of aging” (Village to Village Network). As membership organizations, Villages are typically governed by community residents themselves and provide older adults with services, social connections, and other events. Areas addressed include transportation, nutrition, technology, home maintenance, friendly visiting, healthcare advocacy, and more. Villages facilitate this support largely through neighbors-helping-neighbors volunteer arrangements, with some supplemental support from paid staff and referrals to formal providers. 

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This project is a critical step to connect Village stakeholders and researchers to design future healthy aging research for and with Village members. The project is especially oriented to the design of PCOR/CER, a specific type of research that involves comparing the relative effectiveness of interventions that promote health outcomes of greatest importance to the people participating in the research. For an official summary about the project, visit this page of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.