After a lull of a decade, Wichita is once again participating in AARP’s age-friendly community program. It’s unclear what, if any, changes residents can expect to see as a result, but supporters are hopeful.
“For me, our community should be the best place to live, work and raise a family,” Mayor Lily Wu said. “When I say raise, I mean from birth to being a grandparent.”
The city’s previous collaboration with AARP led to the creation of Grandparents Park off Kellogg in central Wichita but little else, according to some familiar with the history.
The City Council voted unanimously last month to rejoin the AARP network of age-friendly communities. Wu said she was approached by AARP a couple months ago about the idea. About 700 cities, counties and states across the United States take part.
Wichita became the first city in Kansas to join the age-friendly network in 2013, under the leadership of then-Mayor Carl Brewer and City Council member Lavonta Williams. Later that same year, the city and AARP developed Grandparents Park.
However, after Brewer’s second term ended in 2014, the next mayor, Jeff Longwell, ended the city’s participation, according to Andrea Bozarth, associate state director for outreach and advocacy. Participation requires support from a community’s top elected official.
“He said he wanted to be known not as an age-friendly city but as a youth-friendly city,” Bozarth said. “He had a hard time grasping that age-friendly meant friendly for all ages.”
Wichita also did not participate under Longwell’s successor, Brandon Whipple, who served until Wu defeated him last year.
The Sedgwick County Department on Aging and Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, which operates out of that department, is collaborating with the city on the age-friendly initiative.
“We’re excited for this to happen,” said Annette Graham, executive director of CPAAA.
Being part of the network gives the city access to technical assistance from livability experts and support from AARP in developing an action plan.
According to AARP’s website, the city is now expected to:
• Establish a way to include older residents in all stages of the age-friendly process
• Conduct a community needs assessment
• Develop an action and evaluation plan based on the assessment results and submit to AARP for review
• Implement the plan and submit progress reports
• Assess the impact of the plan
• Share solutions, successes and best practices across the age-friendly network
Bozarth called the process a “five-year cycle.”
“The assessment is generally done in first year. The second year, they develop an action plan on what they’ll work on. In years three through five, they implement the plan and track progress.
“In year five, there’s an assessing process. Once that happens, they start over and do another community assessment and develop an action plan around that.”
AARP offers communities a 15-page needs assessment survey they can use or adapt, available in English, Spanish, printed and digital versions. The survey is specifically geared toward finding out what older residents think about their community.
Wu, however, said the city may use the community survey it currently utilizes, which is sent to 5,000 randomly selected households and is designed to capture residents’ feelings about the city’s economy, safety, utilities and seven other areas.
Wu and Graham both said they’d like to see the results of the AARP community assessment survey done when Wichita previously belonged to the age-friendly network. However, Bozarth said the city withdrew from the network before that survey was completed.
The confusion may stem from the fact that the city, CPAAA and AARP also worked together on a neighborhood walkability assessment, bringing livability expert Dan Burden to town. That led to Grandparents Park being built to serve the Schweiter and Sunnyside neighborhoods. The half-acre park, located where the city had been maintaining two vacant lots, features an exercise station for seniors and a playground for children, walking trail and park benches. AARP Kansas paid for most of the $21,850 cost of the park.
In 2019, AARP released results of a livability survey of Wichita, reporting that well-maintained hospitals and healthcare facilities, safe streets and sidewalks, affordable transportation and neighborhood parks ranked high in that survey. It appears that about 140 people responded to that survey.
According to AARP, many age-friendly communities use a framework called “8 Domains of Livability” in developing an action plan, typically focusing on a few at a time. The “domains” are outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing; social participation; respect and social inclusion; work and civic engagement; communication and information; and community and health services.
Lily Wu
After consulting with other City Council members and the city’s Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights Advisory Board, Wu said Wichita would focus on housing, social participation and communication and information.
Topeka is the only other Kansas city active in the age-friendly network, joining in May. AARP’s website shows that most of the age-friendly communities are concentrated on the coasts and upper Midwest. On its website, AARP said most age-friendly communities had achieved changes in public policy, attracted public and private investments and improved livability for older residents through the initiative.
There is no cost to cities participating in the age-friendly network, and Wu said she did not anticipate the city spending more on senior-related services as a result. “It’s not necessarily adding more, it’s how you allocate the current dollars you have.”
Maddy Campbell, supervisor of the city’s office of community services, has been assigned to work on the project.
The city provides few senior-related services, instead relying on Sedgwick County, which this year collected about $2.7 million in property taxes for that purpose but primarily pays for services with state and federal funds. The county commission has set the aging department’s budget for 2025 at $20.6 million, down 8 percent from this year’s budget.
In 2022, Wichita State University joined the Age-Friendly University Network. Earlier this year, the Kansas Health Institute, a Topeka-based nonprofit, started Age-Friendly Kansas to develop a healthy aging action plan for the state. While not connected to AARP’s network, Graham said they “are kind of interrelated.”
“I think it’s a good time for the city to be doing this.”
2009 report could offer starting points for age-friendly plan
As Wichita officials consider ways to make the city more age-friendly, they might revisit the last major effort in that direction. A 2009 report, titled “Revitalizing Communities for All Generations: Visioning a Livable Wichita Region,” is full of intriguing ideas that have never been pursued.
The report emerged from a workshop at Wichita State University attended by more than 100 community member and experts on aging. The workshop concentrated on what could be done to help seniors age in their homes as long as possible — the overriding preference of a majority — and how intergenerational experiences might contribute to that.
“More and more older adults live or socialize in age-isolated facilities, essentially cut off from the greater community,” the report stated. “With families as spread out as they are, assisted living facilities and nursing homes have become the de facto solution for older adults who might need only a minimal level of care. Yet, these ‘solutions’ are anything but. They are financially burdensome and leave older adults at risk of social isolation and other psychological and physical health problems.”
Areas the report highlighted included:
Transportation. The report noted that seniors who no longer drive may be intimidated by public transportation. One option mentioned was for Wichita to bring a branch of the Independent Transportation Network of America here. ITN, which has affiliates across the country, uses volunteers to provide free or low-cost rides for those who can’t drive themselves.
Housing. Two challenges were noted in the report: many older adults live in homes that were not designed or built with their needs in mind, and many adults also have trouble keeping up with yard work and home repairs. The report cited Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit with affiliates across the country that modifies and repairs the homes of low-income and older residents.
Zoning. The report suggested that seniors would benefit if local governments allowed Accessory Dwelling Units. ADUs are self-contained housing units that are either in or adjacent to a single-family home. Seniors could supplement their income by renting out ADUs in their homes, or rent an ADU in somebody else’s home as an alternative to going into a senior-only facility. Santa Cruz, Calif., was cited as a leader in this area.
Intergenerational Living/Activities. The report detailed several examples of intergenerational communities and programs, including Hope Meadows, an Illinois community in which the families of adopted foster children live alongside older adults, who volunteer as “honorary grandparents” in exchange for discounted rent. In one small Massachusetts town, advocates of a new high school and new senior center decided to put them in the same building, with each age group learning and benefiting from the other.
