The Catskill Chronicle

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY – TRIAD of Sullivan County has planned a meeting to discuss “Community Empowerment,” a statewide concept aimed at creating livable communities for people of all ages and abilities. The grass-roots campaign aims at beginning the discussion on how to create better neighborhoods and positive living environments for New Yorkers who would like to “age in community.”

The meeting will be held on Thursday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town of Neversink Town Hall on Route 55 in Grahamsville.

All Neversink residents and seniors, interested in safe, secure communities that enhance the ability to age in place are encouraged to attend. Share your motivation, skills and talents to enhance our future community. Registration is appreciated (contact Bonnie Lewis at 292-5250 at the Cooperative Extension) but is not required. Light refreshments will be served.

The local meeting is being organized by TRIAD, an organization created over two years ago to focus on senior violence and elder abuse prevention, and improving the quality of life for our older citizens. Representatives of the TRIAD steering committee — Bonnie Lewis, Priscilla Bassett, Carol Smythe and Kathi Hitt — will be present at the livable community’s action meeting with ideas and programs that are currently being utilized in New York State.

“Our community has a rapidly growing aging population and TRIAD is interested in fostering a supportive community for all ages and abilities. It has been clearly documented that older New Yorkers want to live independently and age with dignity in the community, but may not be able to if needs and preferences can’t be met. Neversink residents’ ideas are needed to determine what specific needs must be addressed to create an age friendly community” said Bonnie Lewis, RN/Coordinator of the Caregiver Resource Center and Coordinator of TRIAD’s Community Empowerment for Aging in the Community project.

For more information about this local meeting, call Bonnie Lewis at 292-5250 or e-mail her at bjl25@cornell.edu. For more information about the Community Empowerment Initiative, visit www.aging.ny.gov/empoweringcommunities.