As prepared by Gema G. Hernández, D.P.A.

1. Educate your public officials and the general public as to the economic contributions of elders and individuals with disabilities.
2. Arrange for a meeting with the City and County commissioners and the Mayor to present the idea of issuing a resolution during their next meeting.
3. Bring with you a sample resolution and demographic information about the county or city. Information about age, income, buying patterns, age profile of the district is important.
4. Show the commissioner the survey instrument to be used in assessing the degree of readiness that city or county possesses to become a Community for Life.
5. Present examples of how other cities have done the survey. Emphasize the use of volunteers.
6. Get three or four commissioners involve in the process of presenting the idea and the resolution
7. Prepare for a 10 minutes presentation. Use some of the overheads we have included and modify the information provided in those overheads to better address the profile of your community.
8. Once the resolution is passed begin the recruitment of volunteers. Start with the Senior Centers, the Area Agency on Aging and the local schools.
9. Decide before the first meeting with the volunteers which best format to follow in collecting the data and in the how you are going to internally organize the volunteers. For example some cities have used ad hoc committees, others have created a Commission or Committee on Elder Affairs, a third group has established the Office of Elder Affairs and the fourth group have appointed a liaison or volunteer coordinator to do the job.
10. Certain individuals should be represented in the committee regardless of the structure: City planners, Architects, Hospital administrators, senior centers, faith based organization, and the United Way agency.
11. Conduct a 2 hours seminar with the volunteers. Provide the volunteers with ideas where to get certain information, how to obtain transportation routes, how to time the traffic lights, where to get a copy of the zoning laws, how to obtain information about leisure activities.
12. The training of volunteers can also include photographs of ideal bus stops, or pedestrian crossings. These pictures will be given to them for them to compare the ideal situation with the existing situation.
13. Remember, volunteers need to know where to get the information, when to visit the city or county planner, when to visually inspect the bus stops, and when to actually walk the streets and determine the conditions.
14. Give the volunteer all three survey instruments and allow them to become familiar with the questions.
15. No all volunteers will be doing the same thing. Therefore suggest that the survey instrument should be divided by section and assigned different section to different groups. Always remember to identify a team leader responsible for the collection and dissemination of forms.
16. The section of the survey instrument that addresses the Business Sector could be done in the same fashion as the rest of the survey, by involving volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce or from the local senior center. Use the survey developed for the Elder Friendly Business purpose and make notes indicating distinct characteristics of that business.
17. Start with the Elder Ready Survey Instrument for the Well Elder first. Once that is completed and presented to the city and / or county official complete the Elder Ready Survey Instrument for the Frail Elder and Individuals with Physical limitations next.
18. If your community is not a Rural Community you don’t need to complete this survey instrument. The same is applicable to Rural Communities they do not need to complete the survey instrument for the Well and Frail individuals living in a city or town setting
19. Once the information is compiled a report must be prepared and presented to the city or county officials. The report should be designed to identify gaps and to set priorities for the next 5 years.
    All important stakeholders able to facilitate implementation of the action plan should be contacted and a copy of the report should be given to them.
20. The survey instrument is designed to provide immediate feedback to the community and is flexible enough to be adapted to other community needs.
21. Ultimate goal is for the county or city to incorporate in their strategic plan the recommendations and priorities identified by the volunteers.
22. It takes approximately 40 volunteers and 6 month to complete the Elder Ready Survey for the Well Elder and the Elder Ready Survey for the Frail Elder and for Individuals with Disabilities.
23. The Community for Life phase involves the incorporation of public health components to the infrastructure of the community. Activities like health fairs, mobile medical units, immunization campaigns and opportunities for retire volunteer doctors to offer their services.
24. The final phase also includes the incorporation of safety activities like remedial driving programs for older adults, service station participation in safety maintenance programs and traffic profile of the community.