The Howard County
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F O C U S
VOL.5, NO.6
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P E O P L E
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It took the coming of age of the baby boomers to kick off the idea, said TVIH Board President Mary McGraw, of Ellicott
JUNE 2015
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY JOY CHEUNG
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More than 30,000 readers throughout Howard County
Residents find value in a village By Robert Friedman A group of Howard County older adults have joined together in the belief that it takes a village to provide aging residents with a continuing good quality of life and more security in their own homes. The organization, for county residents 55 and over, is called the Village in Howard, (TVIH), and it coordinates home services as well as social and educational events for its members. “A lot of aging people in the area don’t have family members close by. As you get older, it’s good to have people you can call on for help around the home,” said Columbia resident Duane St. Clair, 64, a village member who helped plan the local organization. “Like my wife and me, many people moved into the county when they were young, and we’re all now reaching that age where we could need help to stay in our home, which we all want to do. Howard County is not as young as it used to be. The Howard Village is an idea whose time has definitely come.” TVIH is part of a movement that began in the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston 12 years ago and is now spreading around the country. In most cases, villages consist of older homeowners living in an established neighborhood. Residents generally pool their annual fees to hire a concierge who negotiates group rates with home service providers of many types, arranges social activities for members, and solicits neighborhood volunteers to help older members in whatever way they can. At last count by the Village to Village Network, a national umbrella group, there were more than 160 such neighborhood villages coast-to-coast, with another 147 getting ready to go, as well as villages in Europe, South Africa and Australia. In the Washington, D.C. area, there are 50 villages up and running or under development. The founders of TVIH decided against separating Howard County into multiple neighborhood villages, and instead considers the entire county to be one such village.
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Pat Dunford, a volunteer with the Village in Howard, helps Village member Charlie Catania by replacing ceiling light bulbs in his home. The recently created Village in Howard enables older adults in the county to remain in their homes as they age by providing the assistance of neighborhood volunteers, community social and educational events, access to a list of vetted service providers, and more. There is a modest annual fee for membership.
City, who has been working since 2012 to create a local village. TVIH opened its doors in January. “The baby boomers have always been changing the culture,” said McGraw, 70. “Remember the ‘60s?” McGraw noted that TVIH is not in competition with such government services as offered by the county’s Office of Aging. “We are one more resource for seniors, and are not in competition” with such agencies, she said. Still active part-time at a nursing-care agency, McGraw said she became aware of the virtual village movement when she was publisher of a monthly newspaper for the county’s seniors, which she began in 2001 and closed in 2011.
“I was very interested in the village idea from the start, but then I had no time to do anything about it. Now, I have the time,” said McGraw, who lives alone and whose children live in other states. Continuing care and assisted living facilities have never appealed to the vast majority of older adults. Repeated AARP studies over the last 20 years have found that more than 85 percent of those 65 and older would prefer to keep living in their residences for as long as possible. And that is what TVIH, like other senior villages, is aiming to help the county’s senior do, McGraw noted. Each grassroots village, she said, goes See VILLAGE, page 11
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