Upstate Senior Issues Meeting

In September of 2012, Ten at the Top (TATT) hosted a regional forum in Pendleton, South Carolina with the theme of “Future Needs of Our Growing Senior Population.” The forum included discussion on a variety of senior issues and included some general recommendations on how to ensure seniors remain active and engaged in the community following retirement.

As a follow-up, TATT has hosted three meetings of community leaders, elected officials and interested residents from across the Upstate to discuss some of the key issues facing seniors across the region and to identify some potential opportunities for building regional programs to support some of these issues.

As a result, four potential regional issues/opportunities have been identified:

1.       Developing a group of volunteers around a specific need (transportation)

2.       Creation of a Senior Leadership Program or Forum

3.       Reaching Professional Seniors for Volunteer Opportunities

4.       Developing an on-the-ground senior needs assessment

Following the last meeting, Curtis Askew from DataNgine drafted a survey to begin the assessment process. The goal of the survey is to help idenfity any gaps and potential areas of regional partnership and collaboration. We will be reviewing the final version of that document at the meeting on August 6th as well as discussing opportunities for distribution of the survey.