As the age-friendly movement grows in its second decade, urgent questions of initiative sustainability have taken hold in the academic literature and among advocates implementing age-friendly changes. The creation of authentically age-inclusive environments requires not just the continuation of the initiative, but that its principles become embedded in formal and informal organizational processes, across sectors and beyond familiar networks focused on older populations. This embedding ensures the initiative’s values take root permanently in a community’s institutional culture. This paper argues that sustainability of age-friendly initiatives is enhanced by “spillover” effects, in which a behavioral or policy change in one environment spurs change in another environment. Evidence for such spillover and an understanding of how and when it occurs is currently limited in the context of age-friendly environments. This paper draws on the experiences of Age-Friendly Boston, which has been working towards age-friendly goals for more than five years. Based on Boston’s experience, we identify, describe, and exemplify three pathways to positive spillover across environments: 1) branding positively; 2) publicizing successes; and 3) embarking on new relationships, while strengthening existing ones, in pursuit of shared goals. We also draw conclusions about what positive spillover means for the sustainability of age-friendly environments.

Senior centers provide a wide range of programs and services to meet the needs of the growing aging population. As senior centers aim to serve all older community-members, it is important to assess the value of these services through the lens of both attendees and non-attendees of senior centers. Using a sample of 4,750 community-dwelling adults age 60 or older from Massachusetts, this project aims to analyze perceptions of program importance by center attendees versus non-attendees. Almost 60% of the sample never attend a senior center. Nearly a third of center attendees ranked exercise classes and education opportunities as important, compared to about 20% of non-attendees. Almost half of attendees rated application assistance and nutrition programs as not important, compared to 38% and 40% of non-attendees, respectively. Conversely, for all programs listed, non-users more frequently checked “unsure” of program/service importance. This was especially true for exercise classes, professional services, social or recreational activities, educational opportunities, and trips, for which 18% of non-attendees selected unsure. Center attendees more frequently view the programs/services offered at the senior center as important or very important, likely because they have greater awareness. Results highlight that that non-attendees are unsure of the value of programs or have no interest the programs and services provided. Not only do these results provide an opportunity to senior centers to assess how valuable certain programs and services are, they also emphasize the need for continued information streams regarding programs and services offered at senior centers to those who are unfamiliar.

As Americans live longer, many are finding they need or want to remain longer in the workforce. When the COVID-19 pandemic transitioned much of the U.S. workforce into temporary or permanent remote employment, many older job seekers were left behind, wanting to compete in the ever-more technology-based job market but often without the requisite skills to do so. The present study evaluated a workforce training program (funded by a Department of Labor demonstration grant) that trained low-income workers over the age of 55 for remote employment. Approximately 60 older adults were trained across three 20-week cohorts. Our data sources included biweekly participant surveys, typing speed and Microsoft Office skill assessments, exit interviews with program “drop-outs,” focus groups, training observations, data from participant applications, and instructor assessments of each participant’s level of “job readiness” at the end of the program. Results revealed that participants had acute financial need for employment, a keen interest in working remotely, and a wide range of employment experiences and past job stability. Many of their career trajectories and workplace needs were affected by COVID-19. Results also showed promising improvements in participants’ technology skills and confidence in their ability to conduct a job search over the course of the program. The need for greater connectivity between participants and employers was identified as an area for improvement for the program. The results of this study contribute to the literature on workforce development by exploring how training programs might better prepare older adults for an increasingly remote job market.

The present study examined paratransit managers’ perceptions of a changing transportation market, and what resources or supports they might need to adapt to evolving market expectations. As transportation network companies (e.g., Uber, Lyft) have emerged, the landscape of demand-responsive transportation has changed. However, the experiences of those closest to the operations of paratransit programs have been largely neglected in research. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 managers of paratransit services. The resulting transcripts were coded iteratively using NVivo software, using both inductive and deductive approaches. We found that participants were already innovating and often wanted to be even more creative with their services, but were hampered by inadequate funding, driver shortages, regulatory or policy challenges, and other barriers. This study’s findings advance the literature toward greater understanding of how policymakers can leverage existing paratransit infrastructure to better serve the transportation needs of older adults and other transportation disadvantaged groups.