GOWANDA — Healthy Community Alliance has been selected as one of 10 grantees to participate in Aging by Design, a multi-year project funded by the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York to improve the health of older adults.

The $25,000 grant, with potential for additional implementation funding, will provide Healthy Community Alliance the tools to implement an innovative approach to problem solving, known as Design Thinking, where older adults, caregivers and service providers work together to create solutions that impact the health and well-being of the most vulnerable older adults in the community.

The project will entail using focus groups, brainstorming techniques, interviews, empathy conversations and interaction to find out as much as possible about issues affecting physical, emotional and mental health of older adults. The project team will then work to identify solutions to test and retest to determine what works best for the older adults in our area.

“Seniors in rural communities face so many challenges to maintaining their health and independence,” CEO Ann Battaglia said. “This is an opportunity for us to see what is possible when we create solutions to those challenges with older adults and not for them.”

Healthy Community Alliance will partner with the Springville Concord Elder Network (SCENe), Community Concern of Western New York and Academy Place Apartments to engage older adults and caregivers in this creative problem solving project.

The Health Foundation is an independent private foundation whose mission is to spark lasting change in health and health care for older adults, young children and the systems serving them.

Healthy Community Alliance (HCA) is a rural health network based in Gowanda with a mission to improve quality of life in rural communities through broad-based, inclusive partnerships that support wellness and prevention.

For more information on the project or on Healthy Community Alliance’s programs and services call 532-1010.