The “Engaging Villages as Key Partners for Healthy Aging Research" project continues into 2025! Our team (Rutgers University, Village to Village Network, and RAND Corporation) is looking forward to building on the connections, insights, and energy we cultivated together in 2024 through the virtual summits and Ambassadors Group. Read more below about project updates.
Update on the Villages Healthy Aging Research Ambassadors Group
We administered a survey to the 15 Village leaders who were members of the “Villages Healthy Aging Research Ambassadors Group" at the end of our time together last fall. The purpose of the survey was to learn more about their experiences in this group.
All Ambassadors reported that they felt like valued and influential members of the project. One Ambassador reflected on the importance of the Ambassadors as part of the overall project, sharing that the project:
“elevat[ed] the voices of Village Members’ voices to help inform national level dialogue and discussion.”
Also, nearly all Ambassadors shared that they felt successful in their role on the project and that they benefited from participating, with several Ambassadors noting that they particularly enjoyed the exchange of ideas, a national perspective on Village efforts, and the camaraderie shared among the group members. Multiple Ambassadors expressed an excitement to see the work of the project continuing, including in their own Village work, with one Ambassador sharing:
“my newly found motivation is contagious.”
Ambassadors shared that they plan to stay involved by:
Exploring partnerships with their Village and the project team
Providing feedback on the research outputs from this project
Joining national-level efforts focused on Village research and evaluation.
Thank you, Ambassadors!
Project Dissemination: Conferences and Reports
With the conclusion of the Summer 2024 Virtual Summits, our team remains hard at work in synthesizing and distilling key insights and meaningful takeaways on healthy aging outcomes research with Villages. We shared preliminary insights at the 2024 Village to Village National Gathering: Click here to access the presentation recording, and click here to access the slides.
We have shared this presentation and a growing portfolio of other project outputs on our website under our “Project Reports” page. We will continue to update this information as they become publicly available. Sign up for our email list to receive notifications. Email our project team at agingcollab@ssw.rutgers.edu if you are looking for anything in the meantime.
Here’s Looking Forward to the Future…Together!
We look forward to continuing our work together in this coming year and continuing to build our collective infrastructure for healthy aging outcomes research with VIllages. Future project ideas include better understanding and documenting Villages’ diverse organizational and community contexts, partnering on gathering demographic information about Village members as part of the national movement, and positioning outcomes research with Villages as part of larger national projects on social connections in later life. Stay tuned as these ideas continue to “bake,” and future opportunities for partnerships emerge!
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