Our Projects
Since its founding in 2017, Waltham Connections for Healthy Aging has led a number of initiatives to create a more age-friendly Waltham. Based on our healthy aging research, we have focused on social participation, information and communication, nutrition, physical activity, lifelong learning, civic engagement, and digital access. Cutting across our efforts is inclusion of older adults who are isolated, poor, and/or immigrants. Highlights of efforts to date are below in rough chronological order. For more detailed descriptions and evaluations of our activities, visit our resources page.
Social Participation
We have held free outreach teas, brunches, and dances at the Council on Aging (CoA) and other settings to promote participation, reduce isolation and welcome immigrants. We’ve tailored outreach, event themes and translation to reach Latinos, Chinese, Haitians, and Ugandans. Our volunteers organize, set up, serve, clean up, and offer rides. These events have been a good way to expand and diversify our volunteer base.
Information & Communications
From 2017-2020 the Connections newsletter was included periodically in the monthly distribution of the CoA Newsletter. We received a grant from Jewish Family and Childrens Services (JF&CS) to translate the CoA newsletter into Spanish and Haitian Creole. CoA staff and Connections volunteers distributed the newsletters to places that Spanish and Creole speakers frequent. When JF&CS funds ran out, the CoA covered translation costs into Spanish and now posts its monthly newsletter and Resource Guide in Spanish on the City website.
Nutrition
We have partnered with the CoA, Greater Boston Food Bank, and Waltham Housing Authority (WHA) to distribute free food monthly at four WHA senior housing sites. When the pandemic hit, senior volunteers had to step back, but Housing Authority staff and tenant volunteers have continued and expanded the pantries.
Physical Activity
In partnership with the CoA, in 2017 we created a walking group with Bentley University, using their field house. By early 2020 there were 40-70 seniors walking each of three days a week. We also partnered with hospitals to provide “walks with a doc.” The pandemic shutdown the Bentley walking group, but we brought it back October 2022.
Life-Long Learning
We have long-standing and recent initiatives in this area:
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BOLLI: During 2017-8 we helped the Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)
develop programs for and enroll Waltham seniors, including the Waltham Matters special
interest group and a Waltham history class offered through the CoA.
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MBS: With a grant from McLean Hospital, in 2021 we developed and offered a Mind/Body/Spirit class on Zoom in collaboration with the CoA. MBS had six 75-minute classes where older adults gathered on Zoom to learn new skills and connect with others. Classes covered Waltham history, journaling, exercise, yoga, emotional wellbeing, and mindfulness. An evaluation is
found on our resources page.
Civic Engagement
Our major civic engagement initiatives include:
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Civic Academy: With grants from AARP and JF&CS, in early 2020 we started planning for a Waltham Senior Civic Academy. The purpose was to help Waltham seniors learn about how Waltham is doing as an age-friendly city, how government works, how public and private programs meet seniors’ needs, and to become better advocates. With the pandemic, we had to switch to a Zoom format, which extended development time and efforts. With 13 seniors enrolled, the Academy began in February 2021 and finished in March. An evaluation is found on our resources page.
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Healthy Aging Summit: With support from our Tufts grant, in May of 2022 we held the Waltham Healthy Aging Summit at the Senior Center. Representatives of 17 agencies and 32 diverse seniors attended. To prepare for the Summit, we held seven focus groups with 87 seniors. The groups identified three issue areas to bring to the Summit: improvements to outdoor spaces in the downtown area, more inclusion of immigrant seniors, and better intergenerational connections. Summit participants broke into three workgroups to discuss these issues, and many agreed to keep working to address them. Our resources
page has a call to action for the Summit, an Issue Brief on the focus groups, and a report on the event.
Inclusion
In addition to running inclusive events and translating the CoA newsletter into Spanish and Haitian Creole, we have developed four important initiatives:
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Latinx Outreach Worker: With funding from JF&CS, in late 2019 we piloted a first-ever Latinx outreach worker/community organizer based at the CoA. In the five months she worked before the Senior Center closed in March 2020, the worker demonstrated the need and potential for this position. Using Tufts funds and subsequent grants from Springwell (federal Title III funds), we hired three subsequent workers – the latest in July 2023. They have demonstrated the need for this outreach work and the interest of Latinos in getting connected. See the report on their work on our resources page.
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Ugandan Outreach Worker: With funding from Springwell/Title III and Tufts Health Plan Foundation, we have supported two outreach workers to Waltham’s large Ugandan immigrant population. The first worked from August 2022 until February 2023. The current worker started in June 2023 and is based at Africano Waltham’s large community center. The workers have helped us understand the community and its seniors, their needs, and how to address them. See reports on the workers on our resources page.
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Intergenerational: As a follow-up to the 2022 Summit, a group of seniors and the Program Manager met and began dialogs with local agencies, including Bentley University and the Rivers School in Weston. First, we learned that Rivers had a Sages and Seekers (S&S) program that links seniors with youth. Seven Waltham seniors participated in S&S at Rivers in 2023. Next, with Springwell funding we purchased the S&S curriculum and connected with Bentley’s Service Learning Program. In Spring 2024, seven Bentley Seekers come to the CoA to meet with fourteen Waltham Sages. We’re working on how to extend intergenerational activities to Ugandan and Spanish-speaking seniors.
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Access to the Internet: With funding from McLean Hospital (through CHNA-18) and the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, in early 2021 we created the Welcome to the Digital Age (WDA) program. WDA offers free Chromebook computers, a year of free WiFi, and training to use both to low-income Waltham seniors. Outreach has primarily targeted residents of subsidized senior housing, food pantry participants, and Spanish-speaking seniors (about half of the graduates). A team of senior volunteers has designed and carried out the program, assisted by a small paid staff. In August 2021, we received a grant of Title III funds from Springwell to offer a second round of the program. The grant has been renewed through September 2025.
By the end of 2022, more than 66 seniors had graduated and kept their Chromebooks. We offered a successful refresher program for 20 interested graduates in 2023. In the spring of 2024, a class of 10 Ugandans completed WDA, with a Luganda speaker as a teaching assistant. In July 2024, a second refresher course for Ugandans and Spanish speakers began. See reports on WDA on our resources page.
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By the end of 2024, over 100 seniors had graduated from the program and kept their Chromebooks.
Advocating for Accessibility
At the 2022 Healthy Aging Summit, we identified the need for more benches at Waltham bus stops, particularly in the downtown sections of Main and Moody Streets.
After the Summit, Connections senior volunteers and representatives of the Brandeis students with disabilities group explored the extent of the problem and found that only 27% of bus stops had benches, making it difficult for seniors and others with mobility difficulties to use public transport. We sent a request for more benches to the Waltham Department of Public Works, and cc’d Mayor McCarthy, who suggested we present the case to the Waltham Disabilities Services Commission. We did so several times in late 2022 and early 2023, resulting in a recommendation from the Commission in February 2023 to re-install 6 benches that were found in DPW storage and to add 5 benches to be paid for from Commission funds.
In order to make specific recommendations, the Connections group surveyed the downtown bus routes and identified many instances where MBTA maps of stops did not match actual stops in terms of signs on poles and in the street, particularly along Main Street. We met with the head of the Traffic Engineering Department in the summer and learned that the MBTA was in the process of relocating many Main Street stops, a task that would be completed by September.
Given the timing we decided to go forward with our recommendations for placing the 11 available benches on the Moody/Crescent line as well as at staggered spots on the sometimes-closed commercial section of Moody, where buses no longer run. We submitted the recommendations to the Commission in the fall and cc’d the Mayor. She responded in October that the City would contact the MBTA to learn their plans for stops and that there should be “a minimum of one bench per bus stop.” The proposal went to a City Council Committee.
In May 2024, State Rep. and Waltham City Councilor-at-Large Tom Stanley introduced our proposal for 26 benches as a City Council resolution. In June, $13,000 for the Disabilities Services Commission for six benches and a request from the Mayor for $50,000 for “benches around Waltham” to honor individuals were both approved.