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Villages

 

✔︎ Receive help with household tasks

 

✔︎ Meet new people

 

✔︎ Access to services and programs

 

✔︎ Give something back

 

✔︎ Be part of a community

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” — Leo Buscaglia

Villages are communities of belonging, supporting individuals to thrive in community. They promote neighbor-to-neighbor support and community connectivity, enhance interdependence and healthy living, and are run by volunteers and/or paid staff. Members engage in projects to improve their communities through volunteering, advocating, and creating solutions to community issues.

Villages are constantly evolving to their communities’ unique and changing needs. However, they are all cost-effective models serving as entry-level for the continuum of care in their communities. This is especially true for older adults in Florida’s rural areas, where the distance to healthcare providers impacts “healthspan”.

In the United States, approximately 300 local villages already exist doing the work to connect members to a wide range of practical support services and promote active living with recreational, social, educational, and cultural programs, as illustrated below. Villages form key partnerships, provide resources and referrals, and are an important resource for strengthening their communities.

 

 

 

Village Movement California is an example of how the power of community can create society-wide change in the way we age. 

Watch the short video to learn about its value, mission, and services offered by its 43 member villages to older adults across the State.

UPLIFT Helps Villages

“UPLIFT is pioneering an effort to adopt public-private strategic partnerships leading to a more sustainable and inclusive village framework that has the potential to be emulated nationally.  
Joel Shapira, Former
Village to Village Network Board Member

To help individuals thrive in community, UPLIFT is reimagining villages as inclusive communities of belonging. We seek to promote intergenerational communities, create opportunities to teach and learn, give and receive support, experience belonging, and access resources.

Using the hub-and-spoke model, UPLIFT offers villages benefits that are unavailable to free-standing entities. Villages may wish to become part of UPLIFT to:

  • Reduce the time and difficulty of starting a village on their own
  • Facilitate more successful village startups
  • Expand the number of villages, including in lower socio-economic or rural areas
  • Reduce barriers to participation in villages, providing greater access
  • Leverage volunteerism, expanding intergenerational volunteer engagement
  • Expand stable funding sources available to villages
  • Facilitate innovative village focus, such as housing
  • Enhance access to community resources via networks

The UPLIFT hub reduces the duplication of many operational responsibilities to allow villages to focus on what really matters: their people, their programs, and their possibilities for the future.

UPLIFT is committed to supporting existing villages and villages in formation throughout the entire process. We provide village formation resources, including a Village Formation Toolkit and ongoing support of an UPLIFT village formation consultant.  

If you are an individual or organization interested in the possibility of creating a village in your community, UPLIFT encourages you to contact us at info@upliftflorida.org.