SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015, 10:59 AM
BY MARK KRULISH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Community Center Advisory Board is set to undertake a large-scale survey of the needs of the village’s oldest residents in an effort to better meet the needs of the senior citizens it serves.
A subcommittee of the Community Center Advisory Board, known as the Survey Committee, will be heading up the initiative, which the group says is needed due to the increasing world population of citizens 60 and over. Among its various duties, the board oversees many aspects of the senior center on the first floor of Village Hall, including the events held there.
In presenting the idea to the Village Council last month, Beth Abbott, the chairperson of the Survey Committee, said the board is charged with serving both the current and future users of the center, therefore learning more about Ridgewood’s population of older residents would allow it to provide better services and programs.
“We feel we would be remiss if we did not learn more about this portion of our community,” Abbott said. “Thus, we would like to conduct this needs assessment.”
The plan is for the group to take the survey to various focus groups to ensure it is user-friendly to its participants and the content is acceptable. Abbott noted two-thirds of the Survey Committee itself is age 55 or over, but the board still reached out to groups that study aging, such as the Taub Foundation of Bergen County and researchers at Rutgers University and Montclair State University.
Once the survey is ready to go, it will be circulated online via the online development company Survey Monkey and at various village organization meetings, in churches, the library and at the Oct. 4 Wellness Fair.
Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck, the liaison to the Community Center Advisory Board, said the survey would be conducted between October and December, with a final report coming the following spring.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/survey-to-review-needs-of-seniors-1.1406075
