Miami-Dade County and the Miami-Dade Age-Friendly Initiative recently announced that they’ve received a warm welcome into the Network of Age-Friendly Communities, a network of over 380 cities and communities around the world that are committed to creating a place where older adults can stay active, engaged, and healthy with dignity and enjoyment.
“Older adults are an important part of our diverse, world-class community,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “Joining this network shows that we remain committed to working with our many community partners to continue making Miami-Dade County a place where our 2.7 million residents can enjoy every phase of their lives to the absolute fullest.”
United Way of Miami-Dade joined the county mayor, the Health Foundation of South Florida and Alliance for Aging in authoring an action plan for Miami-Dade to adopt many age-friendly policies that will shine a spotlight on empowering older adults. Those polices included ways to improve safety in neighborhoods such as Little Havana; the development of age-friendly standards for parks, and changes to the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Long Range Transportation Plan.
In addition, we worked tirelessly to encourage municipalities across South Florida to join the age-friendly movement and will be participating in the development of an educational campaign about the importance of focusing on the needs of older adults and making communities age-friendly.
By promoting communities to respond to the needs of people of all ages today, we are building a #StrongerMiami for generations to come.