Aging & Social Change: Fourteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This paper describes the “Village” model, a consumer-driven social support model that has achieved substantial attention in the United States for its potential role in promoting aging in place through a combination of peer support, volunteer-based service provision, care coordination, and social engagement. There are currently more than 200 neighborhood-based village organizations in the US, with the number of these organizations doubling every few years. The vast majority are self-governing, independent membership associations, providing an innovative way to marshal the physical, social, and economic resources of community-dwelling older adults on behalf of their elderly neighbors, and themselves. Drawing upon data from a ten-year program of research with nearly 2,000 Village members in the United States, this study examines the development and impact of the village model to date, and its potential relevance for emerging concepts of “aging-in-place” and “aging-in-community.” Repeated measures analyses of Village members over time show statistically significant increases in respondents’ perceived ability to obtain needed assistance and age in place, accompanied by significant reductions in the need for home modifications and in the likelihood of relocating, but less direct impact on member social engagement or health care costs. Despite their consumer-driven approach, however, Villages are highly dependent on external resources, posing potential risks to organizational sustainability. The paper concludes by considering potential implications for consumer-driven aging services in the US and in other countries.