Representatives of the Charlottesville Area Alliance discuss the mission and vision of the Alliance, and how we can become the most age-friendly community in the country.

SSV President Rich DeMong and Charlottesville Area Alliance panel.

The event took place at the Wednesday February 14, 2018 meeting. SSV President Rich DeMong introduced the moderator Marta Keane who then introduced the panel. Watch the slides while  listening to the podcast.

Representing the Alliance are:

	Marta Keane has been the CEO of JABA since April 2013. JABA works to help people age in community, by providing a Continuum of Caring for the Continuum of Living.  Her entire career has been on helping seniors achieve the highest quality of life, in the place of their choice.  She believes in creating a community that honors and respects the gifts that seniors have to offer.
	Brad Sheffield serves as the executive at JAUNT Inc.  He has been working in the transit industry for 16 years, in both public and private transit planning roles. From January 2014 to December 2017, Brad served on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors representing the Rio Magisterial District. He is passionate about helping communities foster the traditional characteristics that make places great to work, raise a family, and retire.
	Sunshine Mathon is the executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance. Sunshine has lead the development of over 1,200 healthy, efficient homes in Texas and Virginia, including some of the highest ever LEED for Homes communities. He is a nationally-recognized leader in the deep green affordable housing sector. Sunshine holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Texas
	Rebecca Schmidt is the population health manager for the Thomas Jefferson Health District serving the City of Charlottesville and the five surrounding counties. Over the past 15 years, she has worked in health policy, program development, implementation and evaluation for nongovernmental agencies and for local, state, federal and international government.  She holds a B.A. from Boston University and an M.P.A. in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
	Peter Thompson has served as executive director of the Senior Center Inc. since 1999.  The Senior Center positively impacts the community by creating opportunities for healthy aging through over 100 programs and scores of partnerships.  Peter received his B.A. from UVa and his MPA from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Recent community service includes serving on the Board of Directors of the OLLI at UVa, Chamber of Commerce, and the Center for Nonprofit Excellence.

Program Summary

The vision of the Charlottesville Area Alliance is for the greater Charlottesville area to be the most age-friendly community in the country. The mission of the Alliance is to lead the advancement of an age-friendly community. The Charlottesville Area Alliance has requested that the Senior Statesmen of Virginia join its other 17 partners in advocating for an age friendly community, and so it was the purpose of the meeting for SSV members to acquire a full understanding of the objectives and activities of the Alliance, and then for the membership to vote to determine if SSV would become the 18th partner in the Alliance.

During the course of their presentations the five panel members addressed the eight life elements for an age-friendly community: buildings and outdoor spaces; transportation; housing; social participation; respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment; communication and information; and community support and health systems.

At the conclusion of the presentation, SSV President Rich DeMong called for a vote on the resolution for the SSV to became a partner member of the Charlottesville Area Alliance, and the resolution passed unanimously.