Aging Advisory Board Minutes 041415

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Members gave the following Committee Reports: • Public transportation will initiate new rural routes next month but Alex Castro expressed concern about the lack of publicity. • Janice Tyler provided updates for both Friends organizations on the Las Vegas Night, Goat Parade, trinket sale, and fashion show. • Donna Prather announced that the Music In My Mind steering committee will meet the next day. Mary Fraser added that staff support for this project will continue through the assignment of student interns. • Keith Cook summarized current housing issues, such as inclusion of affordable housing on the upcoming bond. Discussion followed on the property tax rate, housing costs, and the Homestead Exemption Act. • Community Resource Connections can be deleted from the monthly report list. • Dick White shared lobbying strategies from the Senior Tar Heel Legislature and recommended that the recent NC Public Policy presentation to the TJAAA Board be emailed to the Advisory Board. • Alex Castro recommended that Advisory Board members join a Project EngAGE Senior Resource Team to share expertise and support the work being done. Mary Fraser invited Board members to the May 19 PE Advisory Council meeting. Mary Fraser began her summarization of the accomplishments in the Master Aging Plan for the 3rd quarter of the 3rd year of the 5 year planning cycle. At the end of this fiscal year the MAP Steering Committee will meet to review the annual progress and set the agenda for Year 4. The planning cycle will begin again at the conclusion of the 4th year. A UNC Capstone Team was instrumental in completion of the last MAP Update process. The Department advertised for four summer practicum positions in the School of Public Health and interviewed 11 qualified applicants. Seven of these students have accepted practicums on a variety of MAP initiatives. Peggy Cohn praised Ms. Tyler and Ms. Fraser for their leadership in this effort. MAP highlights for the quarter included: • A faith-based forum was held in March at the Central Orange Senior Center and all participants were interviewed individually since the event. • Latino outreach efforts continue with plans underway for a Cinco De Mayo fair. UNC Occupational Therapy students have been included in the outreach. Mary Altpeter has worked with a UNC clinic targeting older Latino adults and will attend a future Aging Transitions staff meeting to share her insight. • Keith Cook asked if plans are underway to continue the Aging In Community series. That decision will be made after July 1. • Long Term Care continues to be an issue with students researching service options developed in other countries. • OPT has developed maps for it new routes. The new volunteer transportation service will complement these routes. Questions were raised about these new routes. It was decided that OPT Director Peter Murphy should be invited to an upcoming Advisory Board meeting. Janice Tyler shared the Department's interest in seeing transportation extended to seniors in southern Orange outside of the Chapel Hill Transit service district. • The Capstone Team for academic year 2015-16 will focus on aging preparedness planning. • The transition to a locally-directed volunteer division continues with the establishment of Volunteer Connect 55+. • A Complete Streets planning group has been formed with the goal of developing a presentation on the senior community's perspective of mobility issues for local planning entities. • New mobility management project funds have been secured to replace the NCDOT grant which ends June 30. • The Long Term Care Consortium will recognize five direct care workers for their service at a reception in May. Twenty-two workers were nominated for the honor.