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Abstract
Age-Friendly Communities (AFC) initiatives convene stakeholders across sectors and service areas throughout a community to work together to improve the social and built environments for older persons living in the community. While the AFC movement has been active internationally for thirteen years, little is known about the mechanisms that drive this work and its successes. This study aims to uncover some of the key collective action processes and structures that comprise AFC work in a rural county in New York State, through a collaboration theory framework and a social network analysis design.
First, interviews were conducted in order to contextualize a social network analysis survey by identifying the key roles, relationships, collaboration activities, and characteristics at the heart of this initiative in this community. These components informed a survey designed to measure and map the extent of collaboration among stakeholders and are represented with social network analysis visualizations.
We find that local government agencies and large nonprofit organizations working in health and social services, as well as municipal government administrations, to be bridging organizations among the diversity of partners. In addition, there some evidence of the core collaboration activities of ‘communicating’ and ‘connecting.’ However, the initiative is currently experiencing a transition in which the future structure is uncertain due to turnover in leadership roles, lack of a backbone organization or intermediary, and resources to devote to its continuation.
Findings from this study will help inform the next phase of development as the community evaluates the impact the impact that its Age-Friendly work has had on its residents and provide guidance as more AFC initiatives move into their evaluation phase. The survey developed in this study offers a new tool for measuring collaboration and for understanding the relationships and interactions between and among AFC stakeholders. It is possible that this tool can also be adapted for future studies longitudinally and across communities to illuminate the interactions and patterns that occur throughout the course of an AFC initiative. Finally, by identifying where the strengths in relationships between and among stakeholders lie, we can better understand where resource investment might be the most helpful to support a rural community as it strives to improve the health and quality of life for its elder residents and people of all ages.
