The virtual summits were part of the "Engaging Villages as Key Partners in Healthy Aging" project. They took place as a set of six convenings in June through July of 2024. The summits involved mini-presentations and facilitated discussion on opportunities and priorities for healthy aging research with Villages. The summits were approximately 90 minutes in duration.

The Rutgers School of Social Work took the lead in organizing the summits in partnership with Village to Village Network, RAND, and the Villages Healthy Aging Research Ambassadors Group. The Ambassadors group consists of over a dozen Village members and leaders from across the United States who met regularly in February through June, 2024, to design the summits. For more information, click here.

The summits aimed to lay the groundwork for future research projects on how Villages support the health outcomes that matter most to Villages. Through the summits, we aimed:

1. To strengthen Village participants' understanding of healthy aging research as a tool to strengthen their work and the Village Movement.

2. To gather insights and information from attendees on what they view as the most important and promising directions for healthy aging research with Villages.

The summits also introduced attendees to a report authored by researchers at RAND Corporation regarding how Village participants think about healthy aging and Villages, as well as barriers and facilitators for participation in research among Villages.

The summits were an exciting opportunity to connect with other Villages. We wanted to hear the voices of Villages and partners regarding the types of healthy aging research projects that matter most to them. Insights from the summits will make a difference for next steps on using research as a tool to strengthen and sustain the Village Movement.

The program and content were the same across all the summits. Therefore, we recommended people attend only one summit. We encouraged people to attend the summit most closely aligned with the geographic location of their Village. Below are the geographic regions represented by the six summits:

1. Northwest Plus: Oregon, Washington, Montana, Hawaii, British Columbia, and Alaska.

2. California: California.

3. WAVE Plus: Maryland, Virginia, DC, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia.

4. Northeast Plus: Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey.

5. Multi-Region Summit: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Australia, Ontario.

6. Southeast Plus: Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

For those whose geographies were not listed above, we recommended attending the regional summit most closely connected to their location or attending the Multi-Region Summit.

The virtual summits took place throughout the summer of 2024 through Rutgers University Zoom. All attendees had to register in advance.

1. Northwest Plus, June 25 at 10-11:30 AM PT.

2. California, June 27 at 10-11:30 AM PT.

3. WAVE Plus, July 09 at 10-11:30 AM ET.

4. Northeast Plus, July 16 at 10-11:30 AM ET.

5. Multi-Region Summit, July 25 at AM-12:30 PM CT.

6. Southeast Plus, July 31 at 2-3:30 PM ET.

The summits were for the “Village public” at large. We invited all people affiliated with a Village or the Village Movement in any capacity. This included Village members, volunteers, professionals, officers, partners, and others. We also invited Villages regardless of their affiliation with a formal network of Villages (e.g., Village to Village Network, Village Movement California, Washington Area Villages Exchange, etc.), and we invited Villages in any stage of development and implementation.