 Are you a member of the COA board? Yes. Yes. I'm Jean Horrigan. Hi, I'm Becky Bash with Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Nice to see you Becky. Actually, I'm the chair. I'm glad you came on early. I want to check in with you. Do you want to go over everything and then take questions or do you want people to comment and question as you go through? I think it works well to do it as we go through. Last time we got up to health and community services. I was just going to start after that unless anyone has any comments on the earlier pieces. Then I was going to suggest if there's a group that wants to meet on their own and go through this in more depth, that's fine too. I don't want to force this on anyone. But it seemed like this was a good place to go through it. And there was some good discussion last time. So we did make some changes based on that. Yeah, great. Yeah, certainly if there's lots of questions and comments, if discussion is going strong, well past six, we can certainly look to host another gathering without you. I appreciate how busy you probably are. So you could certainly circle back with you with any suggestions or whatever that folks may have. OK, great. Hi, Helen. Hi there. Hi, everyone. So I'll be hosting tonight. I'm not Al and I'm acting for Haley. So we had Zoom difficulties today, so I'm zooming off of Al's account. So it's Haley not going to be with us tonight. I'm stepping in for Haley at the last minute. I'm not sure. OK. I've read everything. I've read all the material, so I'm up to snuff. Yay. Yeah, I don't think I saw any comments in the actual document. So. Hi, Kay. Hi, Kay. Hello. Hi, everyone. It gets really cold here after 430 in Town Hall. I don't know if it's because there aren't so many bodies here or what, but I always put my code in for evening meetings. Freezing in here. Too bad you can't sneak outside. It's beautiful. It looks beautiful. Hi, Norma. How are you? It's nice to see Norma. She used to take care of my children. Oh, I know my daughter was in there a few times too, Norma. I think it was that classic strep throat. Then they hate you after you've done your culture. Bond memories. We just got home from the capen and I had to run to the downtown to bring a carload of cartons for the plant sale that I've been collecting from the liquor store. Hi, Dennis. Hi. Nice to see you too. Hi. Hi, Dennis. Hello. Get my coffee in this. Do you have a cold or allergies? Allergies. I think I have them too. My nose is running all the time these days. Hi, John. Welcome. Hi, Dennis. Hello. Good to see you. Hi, Ann. You're back again. No, it's right there on the slope. How long? It's five o'clock. How long do you want to wait back a few more minutes? Give people a few more minutes to check in. Yeah, it's up to you all. I'm fine waiting. We'll wait another minute or two. John, you're going to be busy tonight, aren't you? It looks like, yes. Are you going to another meeting? Yeah. Oh, boy. Seven o'clock. I get a brief break. Wow. I hope you have food awaiting. I think so, yes. My wife has promised to have food. Good. Well, it's five o'clock too. We could get started if everyone's OK with that, especially Becky. You're really, it's your meeting here. As everyone knows, I think most of you, I'm Helen McMillan, the program director and social worker for the Amherst Senior Center. I'm filling in for Hailey tonight. I had Zoom problems with, we didn't have time for IT to fix, so I'm actually zooming in on Al Chiwes' account. So I'm a hidden identity host for the meeting tonight. And welcome to Becky. So I just wanted to, so this meeting is scheduled to be an hour or hour and a half. I had an hour at one point. And then an hour and a half. But what did other people were told? The agenda had an hour. OK, that's what I was originally told an hour. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Well, I thought what we would do tonight. Last time I met with you all, and I think most of you were at the last meeting, we went through the goals and actions in the age and dementia-friendly action plan. It was actually part of the community assessment. We've since shifted a few things around and put those into an action plan. So I'm happy to take any comments. We got up to health and community services. So I'm happy to take any comments if anyone has them up to there. Otherwise, I was just going to start on the next section, which is communication, information, and technology. And then another comment I just wanted to make is I'm happy if any group, you know, if this group or, you know, I know John was on the housing committee before, if there's any group that wants to look at any of these sections in more depth and sort of really think about, you know, are these the actions that are most important and want to come back, that's fine too. I have found that I can get more funding from our funders so we can go beyond June 30th if needed. So don't worry about timing so much. I want to make sure you're all happy with this and then talk about whether it goes to the town, is it town council? I can never, our city council for review and approval of submitting it to AARP. So just want to open up if anyone had any comments based on what I have sent out so far. And what page did you wrap up on last time on the? Last time in the assessment, we ended with health and community services. So I'm looking at the action plan now. And so that is on, let's see, in the action plan, it's page seven. So we have gone through housing, let's see, we've gone through communication, housing, and then dementia-friendly community goals and actions. We've gone through transportation and buildings and outdoor spaces and health and community services. Yeah, so we'd start on, I guess, communication. So is everyone good starting there? And then we can always go back and look at what we've done if we have time and you want to sort of look at those again. The other thing is that we haven't yet filled in who the lead entity would be and potential partners and also need to think about priority level and any measures, which I'm happy to fill in the measures, but it's sort of up to all of you about priority level. And what we've been doing is putting higher priority actions at the beginning. So just sort of order them by priority as much as we can and then sort of think about what are the top three actions in each section that you wanna take on going forward. So no comments right away, I'll start off and I'm just gonna share my screen. This is the action plan again. So it's broken into the nine domains of an agent-dementia-friendly community. And so we're on communication, information and technology goals and actions. And these again are all suggestions based on the assessment we did and some examples from other communities. So please feel free to let me know if anything just doesn't seem appropriate for Amherst or if there's anything you wanna add, I can certainly do that as we go. So the first goal is ensure that all residents have access to information about policies and programs that provide opportunities for health and community engagement. Older adults in acquiring equipment and training on how to use it and provide assistance with accessing low cost or free broadband service as the first one. And I have as partners, the COA and the library we can also probably look at UMass. I imagine there are classes there that do that kind of thing, training on how to use computers and iPads. And Helen, you guys are working on that now, right? Relationship with UMass? And providing equipment and training on how to use laptops or... Yes, yes, we have an equipment loaning project going on. We have a half a dozen iPads, not a lot, but for loan. Okay. And we have a RCP volunteer doing a lot of tech training. And then also UMass students are coming in here and doing tech training as well. Okay, okay, great. I'll put RSVP in there too. And then provide accommodations for vision and hearing impaired on the town website and in spaces used for community meetings, such as closed captioning and interpreters. And yeah, so I know some of that is already happening. And yeah, feel free to jump in as I go. Yeah, so I'd like to jump in on that. Can you, am I unmuted? Yeah, it's Ann Burton speaking. On the town website and other spaces, vision impaired people need black lettering. And although it's just adorable to be able to have colorful or gray lettering or other things, it makes it almost impossible for people who are vision impaired to read parts of the website. And somebody who does the website design must become aware that contrast is very important for people who are visually impaired. So when you... Well, Ann, just like we're looking right now, the line that says, age-friendly communication, information, technology, it's yellow with nice dark type over it. So that should be like, that would be easy for someone to read. Because it is large enough when you get to, yes, and when you get to small things, you will find when you go on the town website that there are many changes in the color of type and the contrast is missing and contrast is extraordinarily important. Okay, that's great. Thank you. Okay, and then develop a town policy for translation of materials available to the public and interpretation at public meetings and identify funding needs for these services. That's something we kind of started to talk about when we offered the Spanish forum, you know, there wasn't really a policy for how to provide information in other languages. Can we go back to the 8.2? Yeah. I just wanted to mention that all new buildings and new renovations are providing that material or equipment for people who are hearing impaired. Like we're building a renovation in addition to the North Amherst Library and that will have accommodations and any building that goes on at the library will also have those same types of accommodations because that's, it's required these days. Okay, required by the town. I think it's required by the state by the building. So is that mostly sound systems or do they provide also headsets? I think they're going to provide headsets. Okay. Yeah, that's my understanding. Okay. And then we have invite an audiologist to give a presentation on free smartphones and use of captioning available to income eligible people. That's something that came up, I think in another community and just want to see if you're aware of that or if that sounds like something that would be helpful. If we're going to do something like that, again, I'm not sure who does it, but that could be something that the council on aging could do in collaboration with Amherst neighbors as a way to assure a broader audience. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, and I should probably put Amherst neighbors up there too. And then investigate the use of technology to provide access to books, music and online programming for people with visual, audio and cognitive impairments and offer workshops on these topics at the Amherst senior center or library. So of these, any top priorities? Do these seem all seem useful? Yes, to me, they do. They're all useful, Becky. The only question is where does the person power come from in order to implement these as well as the other actions that you've presented us with? I think until we have person power, honestly, it's a little hard to say, oh, well, this is the thing that's important because lots of things are important. And I think that it's really up to the people on this call and others who are interested, to say, well, I'll take the lead on that and I need some other people to help. And if nobody's saying that, then whatever you're talking about is not a priority by definition. Yeah, I think that's true. I also think that to implement this plan, you'll probably want to engage other, have a committee to in charge of implementation and engage other town departments as you can. I mean, some of this I would think will go to the community engagement department in terms of the website and translation and stuff. I mean, I think there's different sectors that can help out in addition to the council on aging. So this kind of provides a roadmap. But, yeah, Sam. Yeah, I'm very confused by this. Are we equating the senior center and the council on aging as the same thing? Because the council on aging does not have personnel. The senior center does have personnel. So when you say the lead entity or partners, the council on aging, are you meaning the senior center or are you meaning the council on aging? Yeah, you're right. It's probably the senior center. I sort of think of the senior center as staffing the council on aging as the council on aging has oversight. Well, I think you're going to, yes, I'm not sure of that. I don't know that the council on aging oversees the senior center. The senior center certainly helps the council on aging, but it is not the council on aging's job to oversee the senior center. We do work together, but. I think those are excellent distinctions, Ann. I know in some communities, a COA term, the senior center term are interchangeable. But here, I know going back to Mary Beth, people have been very clear about the distinct roles and the only people that have staff paid staff or this is the senior center. Exactly. Right. Aging is a town council. It's voluntary and. It's an advisory group. The advisory group. Yeah, you're right. The town manager supervises the executive director of the senior center. Exactly. Not the council on aging. Yeah, you're right. That's totally true. Yeah, and as we go through, I mean, if the council on aging does have any priorities and if you think there's anything that, you know, you could take the lead on. Oh, Christina, you have a hand up. Yes. I am responding to Ann's concern about websites being accessible. And what I want to say is that Microsoft Edge and also the web browsers, they can read articles, entire articles on websites for you, Microsoft Edge, and Google, the Google Assistant. They can read it for people that have impairment and prefer not to look at the little, little, little letters. They could read this document if you asked them to and if it was on the internet. Or if it's on your desktop, if it's a Word document, you can also make them read it. So that's only for people who have Microsoft. That's not going to work with people who have Apple. Well, it depends. Once you publish it to the internet and it's a PDF document and you post it, the browser can read it. The Microsoft Edge can read it. So that might be another thing for a workshop or something at the library to just make sure people know about. Helen, having made the distinction between the Council on Aging and the Senior Center, what are your or what are Haley's priorities as we talk about these actions? I have not, I have to be honest, I've been too busy doing my double job as program manager social worker here. So I have not been coming to these meetings and I haven't had a chance to talk to Haley about what her priorities are. I think she's probably waiting to see this final report. And I think that would be somewhere where maybe the Council on Aging could say, we suggest you consider X, Y, or Z as a priority. As an advisory board, you could certainly say to Haley, we really would love it if you focus on, I'm just going to point out 8.2 and 9.2. But Haley definitely says the priorities for the whole Senior Center. All right, this will, if you all have priorities here, I think some of these are more important. Haley can also apply for funding and do programming accordingly. And some of these we're already doing as we go through it. Some we're already doing, we can always expand or improve. And some we do need to address. OK, OK, well, let's keep going through. And then maybe you can tell me if there's any of these that rise to the top for you. So goal 9 is facilitated culture of support and acceptance for residents of all ages and abilities. So provide training for municipal staff, community and civic organizations, faith communities and businesses on how to recognize and effectively communicate with customers with dementia and other cognitive disabilities. Ensure that printed information, including official forms or invoices, as large lettering with main ideas and bold types, simple and straightforward sentences in simple language and is available in multiple languages as needed. I'd like to add to that because I have seen our public, our bulletin boards at the Senior Center in various other places. If you have too much material on them, it's not possible for people who are visually impaired or people who are having other kinds of problems, cognitive impairment, they're overwhelmed. So information overload, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So someone has to be constantly on top of editing what is important on those boards. They do get overloaded. OK. Edit what's important on bulletin boards so that they are not overwhelming or something like that. Norma, you're up next too. Yeah, I just wondered, is there an IT person for the overall administration of the town? Well, we have an IT department. OK. I must admit, I can't quote how many people. Like everyone I've heard, they're probably understaffed, but. There is a communications specialist who works within the IT department. Her name is Brianna Sunrid, and she deals with a lot of these issues. But as Becky or someone just said, maybe it was Helen who said, people are overwhelmed the amount of work that they have to do, but she is the person who's in charge of this type of thing. Yeah. Christina. Go ahead, Christina. Saying that perhaps a volunteer from the high school, young people are always looking for things to get involved in, an internship with the town, doing that bulletin on a weekly basis, just making some suggestions. Even college students would find that interesting, volunteering in the senior center and being in charge of making sure that the bulletin is in good shape at all times. But in terms of the language and things being clearer and more accessible, that would be somebody in charge of communication in general. But keeping things up to date, that would certainly, you can certainly engage young people to join in on us and help. That's a good idea. Yeah. And that's part of having this action plan. Like if you do have volunteers, what are some things you could give them to do? So if it's in here, maybe that will help. Norma? Yeah, I had written up some notes, but they got lost in the transit coming home. But many towns have, in order to graduate, and then I think this goes for high schoolers and colleges too, that they need to do some community service as a requirement for graduation. And I would think that something like that with any of these things, whether it's understanding how to get on the internet and or sometimes I don't know the language. When I've lost a password, I don't know if they're talking about the username or the... So I think that that's really hard if you've not been brought up with it. But I think that's something to look into. I mean, our grandchildren are all out of college now, but they had programs in their schools, in California and in New York, that they had to do 75 hours of community service. I mean, that was their stipulation, but it could be any amount. That's a good idea. We should look into seeing whether... I know my daughter was in the high school. They did have that. I don't know if they're still doing that in high school. Junior High, we could check into that. Yeah, so you don't currently work with high school students, Ellen? We may have some come in. We have some college students coming in. OK. But we haven't really engaged the high school students, I'll have to say, but definitely the college students more. Yeah, OK. Probably the college students have, one, a more flexible schedule. They're not on the all day at school then doing sports and by then at supper time, you know. Yeah. OK, and then this last one is just ensure telephone answering services give instruction slowly and clearly until college, not a repeat message at any time, offer options for people with hearing impairments. So I guess that would be municipal departments or I don't know who does the town phone system. Would that be IT? Well, IT does the tech part, but some of this is almost things that each department could implement themselves, like giving instruction slowly and clearly. It's almost like someone needs to tell everyone in the town, could you double check your messages and do A, B, and C in this area here. I know I always in my own recording at work because I know I'm working with seniors, repeat my phone number and my email and repeat it twice and they do it slowly. And so in just a few weeks of the compliment, we say, you're the only one to repeat your phone number or repeat your email. Yeah. Because they get to me through a central line and then they don't have my extension definitely for a callback. So it almost would be someone has to tell everyone in town that we need to be thinking about that as we record our own messages. Yeah. OK, and then so do any of these rise to the top for any of you in terms of priorities that you think the senior center should take on or the town? Seems like 8.1 is really important, right? To make sure that people have the equipment and know how to use it. Yeah, and there's actually a grant out there now. Helen, do you know if you are you guys applying for that? And are you talking about the there was a community grant with joint with the North Hampton Senior Center? And I must admit, I'm not up to what happened with that. I thought that it was a regional grant for iPads. Maybe there's a grant out there now through the Executive Office of Other Affairs that each community can get up to $100,000 for equipment and hiring people to do trainings and access to internet, all of that. So I know Haley knows about it. She was interested in potentially partnering with another community. And I'm not sure it's due. It's due Monday, so she would know if she's applying. Right, right. I apologize. I'm not up to date on whether we applied or not. Yeah, so that's something that's out there. OK, and then I can also check in with Haley if you all don't feel strongly about any of these. Number 8.2, some of that is already being done. We have an ADA transition plan that we have got. We hired a consultant and we got this transition plan done to cover all municipal facilities. And it talks about some of these needs, both physical needs as well as hearing and vision needs. So we apply for what they call an MOD grant pretty much every year to try to make some of these things happen. And that's a grant that we get through the State Office of Disabilities, I think it is. So even though we're talking about people who are elderly or have dementia, but they're often people who have disabilities. So anyway, we're doing a lot of that. We say a lot, but we're doing it consistently. That's a better way to put it. So that's on the planning department and the facilities department. And I thought maybe we didn't get the money. I thought there was an effort to get hearing, assistive devices for hearing impaired here in the bank center, retrofitting some of the rooms that had regular meetings. Did that happen? I don't know, but the facilities director, Jeremiah, would probably know. OK. I think Maureen was working on that grant. OK. I know. It'll probably go to Montague. Right. I have a suggestion for 8.3, the possibility that we could utilize UMass or Amherst College students to assist with translation. OK. Yeah, I know your web, your Engage Amherst website has the language option. So that's really helpful. But yeah, once it comes to public meetings, it's sometimes good to have a policy there. I'll put the community engagement department. I'm going to ask Breonna. Don't worry. Why pile this on her? And also, I mean, when we did the Spanish forum, we got help from forgetting the name of that new department that works with you guys. Cress. Cress. Yes. Yeah, they were really helpful. They actually, one of their staff gave the presentation in Spanish. So that was great. OK. I guess moving on, if there's no other comments on that one, we have social participation and inclusion. Share older adults and people with dementia have opportunities for social interaction through programming, planning of events, and access to technology. So there's going to be some overlap. And first, we have develop programming with UMass and local schools to encourage intergenerational interaction and support. So that kind of overlaps with the one before. Work with the DEI office to identify translation and interpretation needs of older residents and identify funding sources. That's also included above. And is it called, do you have a DEI office, Chris, or is it called something else? Yes, and Pamela is here. She's the director of DEI, Pamela Young. Hello, everyone. I'm joining you for the first time. I'm Pamela Young, and I'm the director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I've been in the background listening in because I'm not quite certain what role you want our office to play. But as far as the work on translation and interpretation services, Breanna and I, the communications director, are hoping to get a plan in place, I'll say, if not by the end of this fiscal year, by the early over the summer in the beginning of the new fiscal year. Great. And I will just add one other thing, which is that I think that the Disability Access and Advisory Committee would also be a partner on some of these initiatives, especially those deal with vision impairment and hearing impairments. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good point. Back to 10-1, you could put down the senior centers already working with you, Mass. We're doing some intergenerational programming. They're helping with the dementia cafe and with the tech training. Just two things are coming to mind. OK, great. These are just notes I'm going to incorporate. So Pamela said some things about DAAC that might relate to the previous section. DAAC. DAAC is the Disability Access and Advisory Committee. So I think that those people could help with some of these issues up here. I'm not sure exactly which one Pamela was thinking of, but I just didn't want that comment to get lost. Yeah. So I think it would definitely be a part of 8.2 and 8.4 as well and probably 8.5 as well. It's DAAC, is that what it is? Yes. 8.2, 8.4, and 8.5? Yes. OK, great. So you're doing trainings, right, Helen, on recognizing dementia for the community. Is that underway? Not the community. We certainly are working with staff. I'm sure the community training is being planned. OK. Yeah, does anyone do dementia friends trainings there? Not at this point. OK, that's a nicely accessible one that the Jewish Family and Children Services offers trainings online or in person. And for a one hour training, you become a dementia friend. And for an hour and a half, you become a dementia friend champion, and then you can train others. So they have a nice kind of a system for doing that that a lot of places are using. OK. So going back to social participation and inclusion, have continued upgrade the bank center and municipal meeting rooms with equipment to assist people with audio or visual impairments. I'd say that the facilities department is working on that. And the MOD grants can help with that too. Is there someone at the facilities department one could get in touch with to give them information about the needs of visually impaired people in public facilities? Well, there's only one person in the facilities department right now. We're hoping to get him some help. But right now he only is an individual who's kind of stretched. So let me tell you what I'm thinking of. And then maybe you can maybe you can point us in the right direction. Many years ago in an effort to help people, our sidewalks in town were changed. The the paving was changed supposedly to help people with visual handicaps. One of the things that happened was that there were color changes and people who have no depth perception when there's a color change, whether there's a fall off of a foot or an inch or no fall off at all. They they see the color change, but they don't have the depth perception. So whoever kindly did the planning hadn't really consulted with people who had the problem they were trying to help. And I'm not at all sure who that is within the town. So for sidewalks, that's usually the public works department. And I think they're going in the direction of having all concrete sidewalks and they're doing away with the brick edging. So the sidewalks will be more typical like you would find in other towns. So we're not going to have those brown bands across the sidewalks anymore. OK, I'm simply I guess I'm asking the question. The person who makes the plans about anything that has to do with pedestrians, do they have some way to communicate with or ask people on the disabilities committee, whether their plan is a good plan for the people they're trying to help? Well, we are communicating with Pamela and the DAAC, the planning department and the DPW. We try to communicate with Pamela and DAAC when we have a new plan. I think we've brought at least one plan to Pamela recently for the North Common and DAAC had some comments about that. So that's kind of an ongoing effort is to try to bring plans to DAAC. And recently we brought the Jones Library to them. So they had many comments about exterior and interior circulation at the Jones Library for the improvements that are being planned. So it's an ongoing effort. Yeah. Yeah, it seems like that's a good role for the DAAC. Yes. OK, we have support expansion of parking near the Bang Center. I think that came up in comments in terms of people participating at the Bang Center saying there wasn't enough parking. We're just finishing a study on whether it's possible to expand the Boltwood garage. So we're going to be giving that report to the town manager and then we'll see where it goes from here. But that's something that people have been curious about for years, whether it's possible to expand the Boltwood garage. And then in collaboration with Amherst Media and other senior centers and local cable access stations to offer online and hybrid meetings and social and fitness programming that can be accessed online or rebroadcast on cable access TV. So that's something that's already happening, Helen. Not that I'm aware of, but I don't want to say I'm the final source of information. So it could be that that's being worked on. Norma? Yeah, we do have exercise classes. I've been doing it for two years now on Zoom. OK. Is it on cable TV, too, though? It is. Well, Jamie Chernoff is one of our leaders and she has taped several of them, like she's in Mexico now and has been transmitting from there, but we'll be back. But if someone's out sick, they don't have really substitutes. And so they've put it on Zoom. And you can just get it at the website for Amherst. So we do have a lot of programs available on Zoom. We just haven't connected with Amherst Media to my knowledge to have the broadcast. Yeah, I mean, even a lot of times the local cable stations will have just recorded programming, so you can go to their website to get that kind of thing. So I guess that's more what we're looking at. Yeah, access online or rebroadcast. And then we have Establish a Memory Cafe and other activities for people with dementia and their caregivers, such as adult date programs, creative music, arts, intergenerational connections, outings, and group activities, respite care. And then meaningfully engage people with dementia in developing programs and services whenever possible. So the Senior Center does have a Memory Cafe going right now. OK. That's a weekly, if you want to call it a weekly memory cafe. It was once a week on Wednesdays. OK. So that would be a good group to work with to see if they want any other kind of programming. Is that something you think you might be working toward? That one, Hailey oversees that one. So you probably want to get back to Hailey about exactly what our thinking is on that. But I'm sure she would want to survey that group. Yeah. OK. Then we have work with the library to train staff and provide programming for people with dementia. Is that another one, Hailey's working on? Again, I don't know where she is with that. OK. We'll check in with her. And then provide information about accessibility of facilities and transportation options for community meetings and events. That's something that just the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office is looking into. And it would be open to all residents, so. Great. So any of these that rise to the top, some of it overlaps with the one above. Sounds like this one is underway, the language translation and meeting room upgrades is or meeting rooms that should be underway. Put this one as higher just because you're working on it now, let's see, just two more. So we'll go through these and then I'm happy to take any comments later or if anyone wants to look in more depth at any of these and give me comments later, that's great too. OK, so we have this is, again, a similar thing. So it's developing a policy for translation interpreter services as well as outreach to non-English speakers to ensure inclusion of all residents in public discussions. So that's the same as the other two, I think. And then consider implementing an agent event dementia-friendly business certification program using the Hrong Boston checklist as a model. That's a really great tool. I think I showed that at one of our forums, but they look at practices, the inside environment, outside environment, and they have a number of different things to look for for businesses. And then they, I think, actually provide a certification. So that might be something in the long term, maybe the senior center working with the Chamber of Commerce or is there a business association or? There is a Chamber of Commerce. OK, and then develop intergenerational skill building and mentoring opportunities with, because this would be the senior center, community groups and local schools. So that's, again, I think we've talked about that in previous ones. So I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you might want to add the diversity, equity, and inclusion office for 11.3, both the DEI office and CRES are hoping to have an AmeriCorps volunteer to work on youth empowerment and other youth programming. So that might also be a place for support. Great, great. And did you say the Disabilities Commission too or just the DEI and CRES? DEI and CRES are working on youth programming. OK, great. And then connect people with volunteer programs through RSVP and expand opportunities for property tax reduction in exchange for hours worked. I think you already have that program right now. Well, we have a tax work off program, which is really not necessary. I'm not the wording with through RSVP. They're really two separate programs. What is RSVP? I'm not familiar. Retired senior volunteer program. And it's a regional volunteer program. That's actually a federal program out of the community action up in Green Hill who also ironically does fuel assistance. And they have federal funds to, well, one, they look for volunteer opportunities more regionally. So say someone's a retired accountant and maybe the senior center doesn't need accountant, but RSVP might know of a volunteer opportunity for that retired accountant at someplace else like maybe at Cooley-Dickinson. So they're really looking for opportunities across the whole Pioneer Valley. They also pay, they pay mileage to the volunteers. So if they have a long commute and they want to put in for the mileage, they'll get that 50 cents a mile. And they also have some other supports for the volunteers to encourage them to volunteer. I would really like that. But the tax work off program is totally separate from the RSVP program. Okay, one more of that. Yeah, some senior centers like will go through RSVP to offer volunteer opportunities. Ann, yeah. I'm astounded. I've been volunteering in this community. I'm 87. I've been volunteering since I'm 60 and I have never heard of the RSVP program. Who knows about it? How did they reach out? Where is it? You know, I'm just astounded. I've never heard of the program. Well, it is, we know about it here. We do have flyers around the senior center. There's probably a little bit of, they're often looking for the same volunteers we are. So that's always this interesting thing. A senior center looking for volunteers and so is RSVP. So there's always that issue there. But we certainly have a flyer here and talk about them. And it would be probably more of the volunteer that wants to volunteer outside of the senior center who might wait, although they could volunteer here, but they might be volunteering somewhere else and driving somewhere else to volunteer. We have flyers here. They only unfortunately have one person that covers the Pioneer Valley doing outreach, going to all the volunteer fairs. I know her well. So maybe why I even heard about it, Ann. As I said, I'm astounded. I volunteered three different places and I've never heard of it. And people have asked me, what are the volunteer opportunities? I haven't had them yet. If I knew that that existed or where it existed, I would be able to tell them. Right. I'd be willing to tell you more about it at some other point too, because I'm very familiar with it. And also a tech volunteer, the person who does the tech training who's a senior is an RSVP volunteer. I think what I'm telling you is that you need to communicate that RSVP exists. So it's better than having flyers available at the senior center. Well, we could have their outreach person come and do a speech at the senior center, I think. I know her personally, so I could certainly work on that. Okay, I'm going to stop again. Okay. I'm going to stop again. At age 60 or 65, I looked for volunteer opportunities that would never have occurred to me to walk into the senior center to find them. So something is wrong if the brochure exists in the senior center. That is not necessarily where people go. I think Amherst neighbors need to know about RSVP. A lot of other places need to know that there is some central way of finding out what the volunteer opportunities are happen. It needs to be all around. It needs to be in the library. It needs to be... We could even put something in our next newsletter too so that people have that information. How about in the Gazette or the Amherst Booth Minder or the online newspaper? I mean, there are so many places to communicate with people. And if I'm being passionate about this, it seems to me very... This is not an accusation of you, but it seems to me very complacent ever to say, well, we have brochures about it in the senior center. That is not outreach communication at all. I'm finished with my speech. Thank you, Melissa. I've heard you and I personally love RSVP and I'm friendly with their regional coordinator. So I'll see what I can do personally to get that information out more to the Amherst community. Thank you. And it's helpful to get this feedback because if we don't know that others don't know that the information is out there, it kind of speaks to the communication aspect of, are we communicating in enough places and enough ways? Because not everyone looks at brochures or looks at the website. So it's using multiple means of communication is really important. Actually, I do want to defend them a little bit, and they did have a table at an open house. So... You know what? I am passionate about this. There, PBS does a lot of things on community stuff. They are really looking for people to interview if someone wrote to them. There were people... Some people still read newspapers. Other people go to the Amherst Indie online. This PBS, there are lots of ways to communicate other than having tables and brochures. You do all of the work of putting together a program and then think people are going to kind of stumble across you. You really need to reach out to what people happen to be seeing or looking at. There are... You know, you can get free advertising on commercial television. You just make public service announcements. If you don't know how to do it, then you get together with lots of other towns and other organizations. And with a teeny bit of money from each of your budgets, I are a professional. But the communication really is not there and expecting a wonderful program. If you've got this RSV program, it's wonderful, but expecting people to stumble across it is it doesn't do the program justice. Okay, again, my passion is... Thank you, Ann. And I certainly will do what I can in my end and pass it along to RSVP too. Looks like Christina has her hand up. Yeah. Christina? Yes. I basically did a quick search of the RSVP program. And the only... In this state, the only city... Well, there's a few, but the one that is most actively on the internet is the RSVP program in the Berkshire County. There is nothing in Western Mass in our area, see, on the internet or anywhere posted, but the Berkshire one is everywhere. It's posted on various websites. That's interesting. I think this is what Ann is trying to say, I did a quick search and said, oh, good, let me look for it, and it just doesn't exist. So you're saying the Berkshire chapter is very visible, but nothing else is online? Yes, that's correct. Yeah, that's good to know. We'll definitely let them know. Yeah, because I think they're based in Northampton. They are, yes. I'm also surprised. They're under community action out of Greenfield, but their physical offices are in Northampton. Okay. Ann, did you have something else? Your hand's still up, okay. Sorry, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that, I will take it. And it is six o'clock. We have one more section. Do you want to look at this or how's your timing looking? Is everybody able to stay a little later and go through this last section? Yeah, we're good. Yes. John, you had a, John has a question. Yeah, I want to raise this before we conclude, but you can hold it till we go through the last section. And that is, I should be clear on this, but I'm not. What's happened with comments on the prior sections or are you still making changes in that, in preparation for doing the final report? And I would, go ahead. I wanted to piggyback on John before I forgot because I was looking at the, what you probably reviewed at prior meetings. It was a section on Crest, and this got me thinking of Crest here we're talking about right here. They talked about the, they called the Crest responders social workers. So it's more of a legal point to make is that no one in the state of mass can be called a social worker unless they have a license. So just the wording for the Crest section, it was page 47, Becky. Okay. Under the Crest section where it mentions social workers a couple of times. I don't know what they technically call themselves like community outreach workers or whatever, but they can't legally call themselves social workers. And we certainly wouldn't want to put it in the final press on this. And John, in response to you, John after the last meeting we made changes to the goals and actions and incorporated those into the report and into the action plan. So if there's anything I missed, definitely let me know. But those changes were incorporated before I sent this out again. Okay. I guess I need to hunt that in my mail. Thanks. Okay. Yeah, and I can send this out again after the meeting. It would be great if, you know, you all can read through it. I know it's a lot or just even pick a section and read through and let me know if there's anything that you see that's glaring or any other suggestions. So we have those comments. So public safety goals and actions, ensure the safety of all residents, including older adults and people with dementia through multi-sectoral partnerships and programming. Post information on the triad program on both senior center and police department websites to educate residents about file of life and other important documents for residents to keep their file of life documents updated regularly. I know. I'm hoping that's correct. There is a triad program, right? Yes, yes, there is. Okay. And so the senior center and the police department are already working together. We just got a new supply of file life cards here recently. They're in short supply, like everything else in the pandemic, but we're able to get our hands on a few boxes of them. Okay. I know that's come up as a priority in other communities. I wasn't sure if that's, if you think that's a pretty big priority here. I do know that one of the fire department personnel was hoping to work on that program. They were out on sick leave, but someone in the fire department actually wanted to carry that out. So I don't know if they're looking for anyone else to take her place on that. I know she wanted to work with us. Okay. Anne, you have your hand up. Okay. I am right now here by volunteering to help the fire department and police department learn how to communicate with seniors. That is what I have done as a professional through my whole life. I have national awards for it. I am here. I am available. I cannot break down their door. And I can't agree. I'm really, really, really passionately angry that this town has not done anything to really communicate. You're going to say a little more about that, Anne. Yes. I want you to tell whoever it is to tell the police and fire department that I'm willing to sit down and have a meeting and help them learn how to communicate these very important things with our entire population or senior population or anybody else before I die. Anne, am I muted? No, I'm not muted. Okay. I would like to invite you to our next meeting of the SALT Council, which is probably going to be your easiest access from seniors to the police department. And at this point, members, younger members of the fire department are coming around to the idea of also participating in SALT. And so that apparently it looks like you've had trouble communicating with police and fire departments in the past. And so I offer this as a doorway of access for you. Whatever the access is, this is my skill and I have been, I'm available. That's all. Linus, do you know roughly when Dennis the next SALT Council meeting is? Let me check into that. We could get Anne invited or certainly get her invited right after this meeting. So she has that connection immediately. Yeah, we've got May. So it could be, hang on a second. Dennis is right, Anne. If you join the SALT Council, that will get you connected. That'll start getting you connected to the right people. Get you connected right away. Yeah, absolutely. And okay, I don't, I fear that the next meeting might be in maybe October, but I don't think so. I think we probably have another one coming up in June. And that might be the one that we... Will it be posted somewhere? I don't believe so, but I'll tell you what. I'll find out exactly when the next SALT meeting will be, and I'll get to you as a matter of, I'll notify you directly. Sounds like a plan. Yeah, okay. Great, Dennis. Thanks for making that connection. Very welcome. Hi, everyone. I got bumped off. That's stable internet. I got cut off. Hi, Chad. I see you're here. Hi, Chad. So I can go back. Do we have time or do you want to just continue at another meeting? Hi, Chad. Do people feel like they can kind of whistle these last five points? Okay. Okay. Let's just open that up again. Sorry for the interruption. Okay, so we have that. So Ann's going to connect with SALT. And so is it called SALT then in Amherst, not Triad? No, the local chapter is called SALT. It's, I think it means seniors and law enforcement together. Thank you very, very much. Yeah, that's exactly it. It falls under the umbrella organization of Triad. Okay, great. And then ensure that regular trainings are available for all emergency personnel on recognizing the signs of dementia and how to communicate with people with dementia. So I know Alzheimer's Association offers those regularly. Is that something that Chris is becoming involved with? Because I had a person in my neighborhood who had dementia and I spoke with Earl from Cress and he said that would be something that he would be able to help with. Okay. He moved away, but I definitely got the impression that Chris would help with those issues. Yeah, that's a good point. So I'll put them in there. Ann, did you have another comment or your hands up? Sorry, I'm forgetting about taking my hands. Okay. And then we have worked with the Triad program to develop a database of people living with dementia or other health concerns and encourage people with dementia and family members to register for this list. Is that something that Salt or Triad has talked about? It comes up as sort of a registry in some other communities. I do know right now, I certainly as a social worker here encourage people to register with the police. I'm assuming their database is shared with a fine apartment and other emergency services. So if I have any caregivers with anyone that's, especially a wanderer, I really urge them to call in ahead of time and register their loved one that's a wanderer. Again, I think Chris is doing something about that because when I spoke with Earl, he said they're starting to make their own list of people who have dementia and might be wanderers and they'd be familiar with them. Now, when you say work with Triad partners, I mean, certainly working directly with police, fine, emergency services, and Chris is great. I certainly as a social worker would not want to see any lists of people being shared with volunteer groups in there because that's highly confidential. So. Yeah. Yeah, that now it would only be with emergency personnel. Right. So I think it would be good to write and ensure confidentiality. OK. And then continue to educate older adults about what to do in the case of an emergency. I imagine that's something that Salt does. Continue to collaborate with law enforcement and Amherst Senior Services and Chris to coordinate calls from older residents who need regular check-ins or have safety concerns. And that's ongoing now. That is ongoing. That is ongoing. Yeah. As a town, a senior social worker, I found Chris really, we work very well together. Yeah. He's been working well. Great. OK. I'm getting a note on my internet's unstable again. I'm just releasing it from top. OK. This has been great. So I guess from here, let me just stop sharing. Good for folks to take another look. Oh, go ahead, Dennis. Thank you very much. To what I was able to confirm, the next meeting of Salt Council will be the 10th of October for a variety of reasons. But we'll be taking the summer break and we'll be resuming that will be our next meeting. That does not prevent you from communicating, let's say, directly with me. So that you can talk to me and I can communicate with other members of the council, also through Dick Yorga, who's the president of the Salt Council, and also another idea that I came up with, that you might be helpful for you, is that with Cress, an awful lot of the, let's say, nonviolent stuff would probably also include senior citizens. And so that might also be another organization that you might be very interested in talking to, helping them to communicate with senior citizens. So that's my two cents on that, OK? OK, I will try to be in touch with you, Dennis. And maybe we could just have it has nothing to do with the open meeting law. Maybe we can just sit down and have a conversation and I can begin to draw up something or bring to the attention of your people, the material that would be useful. That would be fine. You can reach me at Dennis Vandal at gmail.com anytime. That's my email address. Thank you. You're welcome. So Jean or Han, how would you like to proceed with additional comments? Is receiving a digital version useful to folks? Or is there a need to have another meeting? What do you want to proceed? I would suggest that digitally would be great. I think this is something that we will revisit. The Council on Aging meets again to check in, because not everybody was able to participate tonight. And I also think with some time, sometimes other ideas come to mind. So we would look to do this another kind of once over, if you will. And then pass along any additional suggestions or revisions to you, if that's amenable to you, Becky. OK, that sounds good. And you said we're closing in on June. So would you plan that before the end of June, Jean, that next meeting? Our next meeting will be in June, because they're right. So you would do that during your regular meeting and not a special COA meeting. Right. OK. Right. I think at point, I don't know that. I don't know that there would be a multitude. Yeah, we'll do it at our regular. OK, that makes sense. We run out of time. We can certainly then schedule an additional one. That makes sense. And then I'll touch base with Hailey. We had a whole working group for the Agent Dimension Friendly project and just make sure they receive a copy to anyone who's not on the COA. I think this meeting invitation went to everyone, not mistaken. But just want to make sure everyone who was on that list gets an opportunity to read it and comment, especially departments that were included in the action plan. Make sure they see that. OK, any other comments, questions, John? I just say, Becky, I did get a copy of the plan. It came from Hailey rather than you. So it took me a little bit of time to search it. But it came about two weeks ago. OK. If I have it, I assume other people have it as well. OK. Ann and then Chad. All right, you still have it. OK, Chad. End up, do I? All right, I don't know if this is too detail-oriented. But I'm still wondering about dispatch. I don't know if the police have figured out whether they're going to, you know, in terms of an organizational chart, be above crest for calls and decide whether they'll dish them out to crest or not. Is this too detailed a question? Well, I can give you a brief answer. I could give you a brief answer on that, Chad. I think it's highly important whether they come directly to crest, directly to the police, just how that is managed in the fraction of a second that crisis is there. So sorry, go ahead. I just happened to be speaking to Scott about that, the police chief this morning, about that very topic. And he's talking about their 911 receptionists or who take these calls or getting training now and will continue to get more training to make a distinction where should these calls go? Should it go to the police? And it is going to be, you know, quick judgment or should it go to crest? And then also ongoing crests. Sometimes he was just saying crests gets out on the call and sometimes they know it's going to have to go back to the police. They contact the police vice versa crest. The police will talk to crests. So they're working on that and they're fine tuning it right now. My concern is the power dynamics in our city that's a town where, you know, northern Europeans call for a sound disturbance. And they really want the police to be a valet and come clean up the mess for them. Currently, the police shoot somebody out right there. Our police do not walk the block. They're all in cars. So they get there. And, you know, we've had a lot of incidents where they haven't been as culturally competent as crests may be and they've inflated situations. If this badged person was able to say, hey, you know, that's just the way different people, you know, whatever, barbecue, that's not a law violation. We're not going to come out there, which I think crests is a lot better at handling. So I don't know how to word it, but I don't know. Pamela has any more comments or thoughts on that at all? I don't want to take us over the break. What is it? Oh, whether it's really kind of going beyond the agenda of this meeting. OK, all right. But it's certainly an important topic. So I don't want to. Yeah, I don't know about action steps. You know, my concern is, as Jean said, is one and done, one more meeting. These are things that need to be tuned on for a good long time. My thought from the very beginning when I heard of this survey was that it could be a strategic plan for the senior the council on aging. So anyway, I hold the rest of my card for another meeting. Yeah. And yeah, I encourage everyone to look at the action plan and the report as much as you can. You know, pick a section if you're interested in a particular area and do bring comments to the next meeting. Also, think about, you know, what are what are? Priorities either, you know, a certain domain area, housing, transportation, you know, what are the sort of the top three priorities if you could pick from the whole the whole plan for the town? And it doesn't necessarily have to be the council on aging. Senior center, what do you think the town needs to do so we can really sort of lift up a few a few priorities? Yeah, I still don't see that being done in a very time limited manner. That's why I say a strategic plan, which is several several years, usually two to three years. Anyway, thanks for listening. I'll look to you, Jean, to decide, you know, when you want to close the meeting, if we feel like we finished, Becky, going over things. I've gotten through the stuff. We're looking at an hour and a half now. So we said we'd not go over the respect for everyone's time. I think we can call it an evening. Becky, I just want to say thank you so much for your time and clearly you've put in a tremendous amount of work on this and it's exciting to see it kind of unfold and for everyone else who's here, who is involved in the planning, appreciate your your efforts. I think it's going to be incredibly beneficial for our town and our community as we look to improve and be more supportive of folks who are, you know, dealing with dementia. So thank you and appreciate everybody's time. This evening and your your input. It's appreciated and valued and more to come. So have a lovely evening. Motion to adjourn. Thank you. All right. Take care, everyone. Take care. Good night, everyone. Good night.