Published in RINewsToday on October 6, 2025
Over a year ago, Mayor Donald R. Grebien officially signed a resolution, marking the beginning of an important process. The signing ceremony, held on September 16, 2024, in the City Council Chambers, was attended by local leaders, community advocates, state officials, and members of the Pawtucket Senior Citizens Council.
The resolution to join the nation’s Age-Friendly network was approved by the City Council after being in development for more than six years. It highlights Pawtucket’s commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive environment for residents of all ages, from the very young to the elderly.
The Age-Friendly network helps participating communities engage with older adults and their caregivers through surveys and assessments. Based on the feedback received, communities develop action plans to enhance livability for all ages by adopting features such as safe, walkable streets, better housing and transportation options, access to key services, and opportunities for civic and community participation.
The initiative is built around the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report, Global Age-Friendly communities: A Guide in 2017, offering municipalities an action plan, identifying eight “domains for living” to create more welcoming communities for older adults. These domains are implemented and assessed in three phases over five years, with continuous cycles of improvement thereafter. The domains are:
1. Outdoor spaces and buildings
2. Transportation
3. Housing
4. Social participation
5. Respect and social inclusion
6. Civic participation and employment
7. Communication and information
8. Community support and health services
AARP launched its U.S. Age-Friendly Network in 2012. By 2014, New York City became the first U.S. city to join the WHO Age-Friendly Cities network. By 2017, Rhode Island became the first U.S. state to officially adopt the Age-Friendly Communities framework. In 2025, AARP will commemorate the 1,000th U.S. municipality joining the Age-Friendly Network, marking a significant milestone in the movement to make communities more welcoming for older adults.”
Pawtucket’s effort involves a large-scale collaboration between the Mayor’s Office, the Leon Mathieu Senior Center, other city departments, Age-Friendly Rhode Island, the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), and various local organizations. Together, they will oversee data collection and the creation of an Age-Friendly blueprint for action.
Pawtucket Becomes Official
Last week, Mayor Grebien, along with members of the City’s Age-Friendly Task Force and AARP Rhode Island, formally announced Pawtucket’s efforts to join over 1,000 communities in the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. Globally, over 1,500 cities and towns across more than 51 countries have joined the WHO Age‑Friendly network, illustrating the reach of this movement.
With the kickoff of the press conference, Pawtucket joined other Rhode Island cities—Newport, Cranston, Providence, Westerly, and Bristol—in this growing initiative.
Mary Lou Moran, Director of the Leon Mathieu Senior Center and Pawtucket Senior Services, served as master of ceremonies. She welcomed over 90 attendees and introduced the initiative, “Age-Friendly Pawtucket: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future,” along with a panel of speakers.
“This is an exciting day as the city commits to addressing aging across the lifespan and ensuring we provide appropriate services, support systems, and opportunities for families and caregivers,” said Moran.
A key component of the press conference was the launch of a community needs assessment and survey, designed to gather direct input from residents to help guide the development of the action plan. Moran encouraged attendees, especially older residents, to participate in the survey. “We need your input to help us build a community that promotes health and wellness for all ages,” she said.
Catherine Taylor, State Director of AARP Rhode Island, explained the core philosophy behind the Age-Friendly movement: “If you make a city great for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old, you make it great for everyone. That’s the age-friendly lens Pawtucket is using.”
AARP Rhode Island President Elizabeth Howlett, former Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, emphasized the importance of volunteerism and the role of community members in the survey process.
James Connell, Executive Director of Age-Friendly Rhode Island, noted that the aging population in Pawtucket and across Rhode Island was a major driver for embracing this initiative. “Rhode Island is one of the few states where there are more people age 65 and older than under 20,” he said. “This is something to celebrate. It’s an opportunity to assess needs, meet challenges, and create goals and visions for healthy aging.”
Beth Roberge, President of the Pawtucket Senior Citizens Council, shared a personal perspective on aging while advocating for the initiative: “Life doesn’t end when you reach a certain age. It’s just another stepping stone.”
Jeanne Cola, LISC’s Executive Director, called for Pawtucket’s older residents to participate in the survey, stressing that the data collected would drive the city’s planning and policies, rather than relying on assumptions. “Let your voice be heard. If you don’t participate, you don’t get what you want,” she said.
Mayor Grebien closed the event with a light-hearted remark: “Now that I’ve turned 58, I truly understand the importance of the Age-Friendly Initiative.” He expressed excitement about the opportunities that would emerge from this effort.
Comments from the Crowd
“The support shown at the kick-off event by AARP leadership, Mayor Grebien, and so many organizations across the City was just amazing,” said Maureen Maigret, policy advisor for the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island (SACRI). “Now, the work begins as the Task Force reviews the survey data to identify which areas to target for initial efforts.”
As a Pawtucket native, Maigret was thrilled to see the city’s Age-Friendly designation come to fruition. She had previously served as a consultant for Newport 4 All Ages, Rhode Island’s first Age-Friendly Community.
“I was so energized by the turnout at the Age-Friendly designation event in Pawtucket,” said Carol Anne Costa, Executive Director of SARI. “And kudos to Mary Lou and her team. The day demonstrated the power of community. Advocacy depends on citizens speaking and acting in their own best interests. Pawtucket’s work shows that older adults are ready to make Rhode Island a state that promotes healthy aging.”
Age-Friendly Pawtucket Task Force Members
· Pawtucket Senior Citizens Council
· Pawtucket Commission on Arts & Culture
· Blackstone Valley Community Action Program
· Blackstone Health, Inc.
· Blackstone Valley Prevention Coalition
· Gateway Healthcare/Brown University Health
Resources:
1. Step-by-Step Toolkit for Creating an Age-Friendly Community
Start the process of becoming an age-friendly community by following this guide:
Age-Friendly Toolkit [shared.outlook.inky.com]2. Understanding AARP’s Age-Friendly Process
Learn more about AARP’s approach to creating age-friendly communities:
AARP Age-Friendly Communities [shared.outlook.inky.com]___
Tag Archives for Age Friendly RHode Island
LRI and Age Friendly Rhode Island Develop Senior Fellows Program
Published in Leadership Rhode Island’s Winter 2023 Newsletter
When Gilda Hernandez learned about Leadership Rhode Island’s new Senior Fellows Program, she promptly applied. Then the 65-year-old research librarian at Providence College crossed her fingers, hoping she would be selected for the no-cost, eight-week summer series designed “to lift the voices, knowledge and vision of Rhode Islanders, age 62 and over.”
Hernandez got her wish. She was among the 25 applicants invited to participate in the program’s pilot year.
She had two goals. As the medical advocate for her 88-year-old parents, Hernandez wanted to become an educated caregiver, one who knows how to navigate state agencies to get appropriate services for them. Beyond that, she wanted to be better prepared to tackle the societal problem of ageism, especially in the education sector.
The program was “what I expected. . . and more,” says, giving a thumbs up to the “exceptional programming and top-notch presenters.”
The newly-minted Senior fellows, residents of 13 different cities and towns, range in age from 62 to 83. Nearly half were retired. Four are graduates of LRI’s core program: Anne Powers, 1986 Zeta, Ron Caniglia, 1987 Eta, Susan Daly 2013 LotaII, and Hernandez, 2017 Nu 11.
“We were looking for a diverse group of individuals that clearly expressed an interest in aiding the older adult population in Rhode Island and could bring an interesting perspective to the cohort. We were also conscious of building a cohort that included individuals with different levels of experience in civic engagement,” says Teresa DeFlitch, LRI’s director of leadership development.
The idea to develop a senior advocates program came from Marianne Raimondo, 1989 Iota, who made the link between Leadership Rhode Island and James Burke Connell, executive director of Age-Friendly Rhode Island, an initiative at Rhode Island College that represents a coalition of public and private agencies, organizations and individuals committed to healthy aging.
Empowering Seniors to become advocates, activists and champions of age-friendly thinking and practices “will result in a Rhode Island where older adults thrive and live their best lives,” Connell says.
He made a pitched the idea to Michelle Carr, 2014 Kappa II, LRI’s executive director, who could easily see the benefits of the proposed joint venture. One such positive: Nearly a fourth of LRI’s 3000 alumni are 62 years or older, many of whom are prime candidates for the program.
More importantly, Carr adds, LRI and Age-Friendly RI are both propelled by the belief that citizens of all ages who are actively engaged in their communities can make lasting impacts.
Age-Friendly RI agreed to fund the pilot program and asked LRI’s “talented team” to handle recruiting, participant selection, curriculum planning, and guiding participants in the development of individual community commitments, Connell says.
To get started, DeFlitch says she had conversations with Connell and others associated with Age-Friendly movement during which it was emphasized that older adults need more opportunities to share their experiences and their solutions to age-related challenges.
She kept these observations in mind when working with the team to develop programming. The resulting curriculum drew on LRI’s long-standing reputation for facilitating dynamic learning experiences and took advantage of the expertise and availability of Age-Friendly experts.
Most session days were divided into two parts, with half focused on knowledge-building around relevant issues, such as housing, food insecurity, transportation needs, and health care.
The other half focused on skill-building, such as writing persuasively, public speaking and network building, to enable the Fellows to develop and eventually execute their own Civic Commitments.
The Fellows took turns describing their Civic Commitments during their final session, held at the RI State House. The presentations, which included several “poignant and pin-drop moments,” were well received by the audience, which included representatives from the state’s Office of Equity and Engagement, mostly nonprofit leaders, according to Age-Friendly Connell.
Senior Fellow Ron Caniglia, 77, from Warwick, applauds the advocacy program for emphasizing the importance of “living in place,” rather than “aging in place.” In fact, his Civic Commitment — to urge the expansion of Medicare benefits to adequately cover hearing, vision and dental care — would enable more older adults “to live life to the fullest.”
A retired contractor, Caniglia’s arguments for the expansion of these benefits are passionate and personal. Hearing loss, if not addressed, can contribute to the breakdown of family and everyday social relationships, he says. This could lead to unhealthy isolation.
DeFlitch has high hopes that the first crop of Fellows who are expected to begin civic engagement within six months of leaving the program – will have a positive impact on senior citizens throughout the Ocean State.
We hope, she says, that by participating in this program, the Fellows have expanded their knowledge, network, and confidence when it comes to making a difference.
It is also hoped, she adds, that each participant feels more connected to a supportive and joyful community, including their fellow Fellows, and the LRI and Age-Friendly networks.
“We are eager to run the program again and incorporate feedback from this year’s cohort. Working with Age-Friendly Rhode Island has been wonderful and we are learning a great deal from the cohort members about what’s affecting them as older adults in the state. It’s been an inspiring and energizing experience,” DeFlitch says.
Age beat writer gives us his most important columns in 2023
Published in Blackstone Valley Call and Times, on January 1, 2024
Over the years, like many of the nation’s news organizations, The Pawtucket Times, created an ‘Age Beat’ column in 2002 that allowed this writer for several years to cover a myriad of aging issues, including Social Security and Medicare, ethics, long-term care, consumer issues, spirituality, pop culture, health care and economics. Ultimately, I would return in July, 2012 to resume writing, also picking up other weekly commentaries.
As an ‘age beat’ journalist for over 44 years, I have penned more than 930 stories covering aging, health care and medical issues. These authored and coauthored pieces have appeared in national, state and trade publications.
In 2023, my articles appeared weekly in 52 issues of the Pawtucket Times and Woonsocket Call (now combined in one newspaper called the Blackstone Valley Call & Times), and RINewsToday.com, a statewide digital news publication.
As we celebrate the New Year and look forward to 2024, looking back, here are my top five favorite articles published in 2023:
“In the coming years, generations of older Veterans will be leaving us,” – RINewsToday, Nov. 13, 2023
This commentary published before Veterans Day, had the Department of Veteran Affairs estimate that there will be a couple of hundred World War II veterans, over 1,600 Korean and 14,000 Vietnam veterans still alive in Rhode Island. In the coming years, frailty and health issues will keep these elderly veterans’ from attending Veteran Day celebrations and even at their reunions.
As a generation of Civil War and World War I veterans vanish in 1956 and 2011, this writer urged readers to cherish the surviving older veterans. In the next thirty years, it was stressed that new generations of veterans who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam will pass away and these veterans were urged to share their personal stories and oral histories for the sake of America’s future generations. “They have so much to say, and America’s younger generations have much to learn from them,” noted the commentary.
This commentary was dedicated to the writer’s father, Second Lt. Frank M. Weiss, who died in December 2003, in Dallas, Texas at 89 years old.
“Passages – Life and Times of Morris Nathanson,” RINewsToday, Oct. 7, 2023
Over two decades, this writer would visit Morris Nathanson on Saturday afternoons sitting in his living room drinking cups of freshly brewed coffee. We would talk about Pawtucket, world events, and he would reminiscence about his amazing life’s journey from his childhood in Pawtucket, to the international world he lived in later in his life.
My friend, 95-year-old Morris Nathanson, a painter, illustrator and restaurant/hospitality designer died last September. My commentary was written to recognize and honor Morris’s incredible life, detailing his World War II experiences, fighting for civil rights, and his impact on the art and design scene.
Growing up poor during the depression in Pawtucket’s Pleasant View neighborhood, Morris, a spitting image of Mark Twine, or maybe Albert Einstein to me, would ultimately have a major impact on Rhode Island’s art and restaurant design scene.
Morris brought the strategy of adaptive re-use of underutilized and vacant mills to city and state officials, a concept that he picked up from his years of working in New York City, watching the development and transformation of the industrial mills in SOHO.
Witnessing firsthand man’s biases and prejudices motivated him throughout seventy-five years of his long life to fight for the equal rights of all. Morris participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King’s campaigns in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
At age 24, Morris, head of the design team at Paramount, developed and designed the first franchise in American history, Dunkin Donuts. While working with Friedman he also designed restaurants in the pavilions of the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.
When Morris left Paramount Restaurant Supply Co, his most notable design projects locally include Hemenway’s, Ruth Chris Steak House, 22 Bowen, restaurants and bars for the Inn at Castle Hill, Capital Grill, Pizzeria Uno, Joe’s American Bar & Grill, Mills Tavern, Waterman Grill, Red Stripe and for those who still remember, the beloved Ming Garden and McGarry’s Restaurant in downtown Providence. He also had clients all over the world.
It would take pages to detail all of Morris’s professional accomplishments while serving on state, city and nonprofit organizations throughout his long-life. Hopefully I whetted your appetite to learn more about his life by reading this commentary.
“Will Magaziner fulfill call to reestablish House Aging Committee,” RINewsToday, Oct. 9, 2023.
As reported, with Congressman David Cicilline retiring from Congress, no House lawmaker has yet stepped up to reintroduce, H.R. 583, the Rhode Island lawmaker’s resolution to reestablish the House Select Committee on Aging (HSCoA). Without receiving a vote in the House Rules Committee at the end of the 117th Congress, the resolution was considered “dead.” On his way out Cicilline was not successful in passing the legislative baton and finding a new original sponsor. The Rhode Island Congressman had introduced this resolution in four Congressional sessions.
The HSCoA was a permanent select committee of the U.S. House of representatives between 1974 to 1992. The committee was initially created with the intent of not crafting legislative proposals, but of conducting investigations and holding hearings to put the Congressional spotlight on aging issues. Its purpose was to push for legislation and other actions, working with standing committees, through regular committee channels.
This writer asks who will ultimately pick up the legislative baton from Cicilline to become Rhode Island’s fiery aging advocate? Will it be Congressman Seth Magaziner, or the newly elected Congressman Gabe Amo, from Rhode Island’s Congressional District 1 to step to the plate?
The article asks why shouldn’t a Rhode Island Congressman follow in the footsteps of former Rhode Island Congressman John E. Fogarty (dec.) and be the original sponsor of legislation that will have a major impact on national aging policy. The lawmaker would become a hero to America’s seniors.
“Unique partnership creates Senior Fellows pilot program,” RINewsToday, Dec. 11, 2023
This commentary announced that the success of a pilot Senior Fellows Program, created by Leadership Rhode Island (LRI) and Age-Friendly Rhode Island (AFRI), the organizations are seeking funding to offer another session in the summer of 2024.
The unique initiative prepared 25 Senior Fellows to advocate for improvements that address age-related challenges in Rhode Island. The initial eight-week program was tuition-free. The first crop of Senior Fellows, residents of 13 different cities and towns in Rhode Island, ranged in age from 62 to 83. Nearly half were retired.
The idea to develop a senior advocates program came from Marianne Raimondo, a graduate of LRI’s Core Program, who made the connection between Leadership Rhode Island and James Burke Connell. Connell is the executive director of Age-Friendly Rhode Island, an initiative at Rhode Island College that represents a coalition of public and private agencies, organizations and individuals committed to healthy aging.
Connell proposed the pilot program because, he says, empowering seniors to become advocates, activists and champions of age-friendly thinking and practices “will result in a Rhode Island where older adults thrive and live their best lives.” He was inspired by similar programs in Maine and New Hampshire.
Age-Friendly RI raised the funds for the pilot program, and relied on LRI’s “talented team” to handle recruiting, participant selection, curriculum planning, and guiding participants in the development of individual community commitments, Connell says.
Most session days were divided into two parts, with half focused on knowledge-building around relevant issues, such as housing, food insecurity, transportation needs, and health care. The other half focused on skill-building, such as writing persuasively, public speaking and network building, to enable the Fellows to develop and eventually execute their own Civic Commitments.
The Fellows took turns describing their Civic Commitments during their final session, held at the RI State House. The presentations, which included several “poignant and pin-drop moments,” were well received.
“Increased funding must be tied to nursing home mandated minimum staffing“, RINewsToday, September 25, 2023
The commentary announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had issued a proposed rule to establish comprehensive staffing requirements for nursing homes—including, for the first time, national minimum nurse staffing standards. CMS officials said that the requirement would improve both safety and promote high-quality care in the nation’s 18,700 skilled nursing facilities delivering care to 1.2 million residents each day.
National and Rhode Island nursing home trade groups pushed back on the unfunded mandate requiring more staffing especially during a severe labor shortage forcing hundreds of facilities across the nation to close because of lack of workers.
John E. Gage, President, and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, reported that six Rhode Island-based facilities have closed since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Three others are currently in receivership. He warns that arbitrary federal staffing mandates will result in more closures, and residents will be displaced from their homes just as they were most recently when Charlesgate Nursing Center in Providence.
James Nyberg, president, and CEO of LeadingAge Rhode Island, with offices in East Providence, sees a staffing ratio mandate as a blunt enforcement tool that does not consider the numerous challenges facing providers, including Medicaid underfunding, lack of workforce, and the diversity of resident needs. Moreover, he charged that fining for being unable to meet a staffing ratio is counterproductive by siphoning off scarce resources that facilities need as they seek to address their workforce and resident care needs.
To review ALL of Herb’s articles published by RINewstoday, go to https://rinewstoday.com/herb-weiss/
Herb Weiss 