Around spring 1970, I took my first cross country road trip with my college friend, Cliff, who later became a doctor and then the surgeon general of New Jersey. We began our journey at our college, Rutgers University.
We sang Bob Dylan songs and hummed Beatles’ ditties, slept in our car outside Pittsburgh, ate White Castle hamburgers in Chicago, got a flat tire in Ohio, going west and returning east, paid about 11 cents a gallon for gas in Oklahoma, scared one another to death with stories about ax murderers while camping in Tonto National Forest, and visited Sid Caesar’s son, Ricky, in Beverly Hills.
Sid’s son was a poker playing friend of mine in high school, before his family moved west.
Of course, we used an AAA-provided road map to guide us on our journey.
These days, as a member of the Community Health and Senior Services Commission (CHSSC), I consider a very different type of road map; the one prepared by the Senior Service Committee, to address deficiencies in senior services in our town.
‘Unlike many reports that are read and then shelved, never to be heard from again, this Road Map will be implemented.’
Jeffrey Blum, columnist
These deficiencies were detailed in a report prepared by CHSSC after comparing services and facilities available to seniors in nearby towns, to those available in Los Gatos.
Unlike many reports that are read and then shelved, never to be heard from again, this Road Map will be implemented, judging from the work that went into creating it, the positive comments made by town council members after reviewing it, and based upon my impression of the level of commitment of CHSSC commissioners to implementing it.
The Road Map is the product of an incredible amount of work, including conducting a town-wide survey of senior services, doing a deeper dive investigation of senior services in similarly situated towns, including Princeton, New Jersey, just down the road from where I attended college, and holding multiple meetings with residents. Following this, the Senior Service Committee members spent many hours building a consensus and writing the Road Map report, which is more than 45 pages long.
The Road Map listed seven primary goals for improving senior services in Los Gatos: 1. Having an appealing and inviting facility; 2. Continuing core senior services in the short term; 3. Improving communications and engagement; 4. Improving volunteer support and engagement; 5. Enhancing transportation options for older adults; 6. Improving information dissemination and housing options for seniors; and 7. Establishing integrated governance, funding and accountability for senior services.
The report provides one-, three- and 10-year benchmarks for each of the seven goals. It also provides guidelines for determining responsibilities for meeting the goals.
CHSSC will play a significant role in fulfilling many of the goals of the Road Map.
Seniors currently make up about 21% of the town’s population. The percentage of seniors in our town is projected to increase to approximately 30% or more in the next several years. These facts, and the fact that CHSSC and the Senior Service Committee so effectively highlighted the deficiencies in senior services in Los Gatos, perhaps explains why the town council decided to make improving senior services one of its strategic priorities for 2023.
Having the Road Map, the commitment from the town council, and a core group of commissioners and others who are willing to work on implementing the Road Map, is a start. However, to be successful in improving senior services, we need others who are willing to help. We need people who are willing to serve on subcommittees, provide expertise in areas such as marketing, housing and transportation on occasion, and residents who will publicize the benefits the Road Map offers to seniors and by extension, to the community at large. Without this community-based commitment, I fear we may end up lost, as my traveling friend Cliff and I often found ourselves, having a powerful Road Map, but as Bob Dylan would say, with no direction home.
If you are interested in helping with this important project, contact me at bl*****@ao*.com .
Jeffrey P. Blum is a family law mediator who lives in Los Gatos.
