week 8 Assignment: Community Resources for Older Individuals

Volunteers, organizations, and political officials in local communities often campaign to improve conditions and provide services to enhance the well-being of residents. If you are the parent of young children, for instance, you might focus on improving the local school or creating safe places where children can play. If you are an individual in later adulthood or a caregiver for an older adult, what community resources might be important to you? What social challenges could be resolved through increased community support?

In this week’s Assignment, you evaluate the resources that your local community currently provides for its older members and propose improvements or additions to better meet older adults’ needs. 

• Review the Learning Resources on sociological aspects of later adulthood. 
• Using the Internet and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services link in the resources, research agencies in your local community that support the issues and concerns of the older population.
• Note the services provided by these agencies and any gaps you see. Consider what improvements might be made to existing services as well as opportunities for new services to be added.

Submit a 2- to 4-page paper in which you do the following:

• Identify three agencies in your local community that support individuals in later adulthood.
• Provide an overview of the services each provides.
• Identify the service gaps you notice.
• Explain how to improve existing services to address these gaps. 
• Describe services that should be added to better serve this population and explain why.