HomeMy WebLinkAbout021522-07.1 JIM DONNELLY reportContra Costa Advisory Council on Aging Report
Jim Donnelly
The ACOA has had an active year despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. All ACOA, workgroup and committee meetings were conducted via Zoom. Presentations were made at
each month’s ACOA and workgroup meetings covering many issues of concern for seniors. Currently the ACOA has 36 active members with all Member-at-large seats filled and 4 city vacancies.
In all the during 2021 the ACOA held 10 meetings and the workgroups/ committees held an additional 78 meetings.
In June the ACOA, in collaboration with the SCAN foundation, presented a virtual conference titled: Master Plan for Aging, Craft it your way, Contra Costa. The conference was attended
by 175 persons representing government, service providers, advocates, and the public. The outcome from this conference included a list of 15 priorities for consideration by ACOA Workgroups
in developing out local MPA road map.
As an outgrowth of this conference a Contra Costa MPA IMPACT (Implementing the MPA in California Together) steering committee has been formed with representatives from County agencies,
ACOA and public interest groups to assist with the MPA implementation.
Key activities for each of our Committees and Workgroups are highlighted below:
The Planning committee conducted reviews of each of the AAA contractors. It also provided input the Area Plan Annual update.
The Membership committee continued with recruitment efforts to increase the diversity on the ACOA. All MAL seats are now filled with more diverse representatives from east county.
The Housing workgroup continues to advocate for increased affordable accessible housing in Contra Costa. A presentation was made by Danville on their ADU program. A housing white paper
is in preparation awaiting census data update.
The Health workgroup is in the process of completing a white paper on,” Selecting a Skilled Nursing Facility”.
The Legislative committee was quite active tracking Assembly and Senate bills dealing with issue of importance to seniors and informing all workgroups of bills important for them.
The Transportation workgroup advocated for Measure X funding for implementation of the Accessible Transportation Plan and prepared a transportation infographic highlighting transportation
challenges for seniors and the disabled.
The Technology workgroup provided input for updates to the ACOA website and pages. They began efforts to address the issues of digital divide, digital inclusion and social isolation.
The Elder Abuse Prevention Workgroup collaborated with APS to update the financial elder abuse prevention presentation to include all forms of elder abuse.