Aging in Place in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities: Transforming Aging Through Supportive Service Programs

Abstract

The NORC Supportive Services Program (NORC-SSP) model is a community-level intervention in which older adults, building owners and managers, service providers, funders, and other community partners create a network of services and volunteer opportunities to promote aging in place among older adults who live in ‘naturally occurring retirement communities,’ housing developments and residential areas not planned for older adults but in which large numbers of older adults reside. Because they promote aging in place as well as leadership and self-determination among older adults, NORC-SSPs can be simultaneously conceptualized as a service delivery mechanism, public policy strategy, and means to rewrite cultural meanings of aging. In this article, we provide an overview of the NORC-SSP model, review the potential impact of NORC-SSPs on cultural perceptions of aging, and discuss the impacts and implications of NORC-SSPs on public policy and the aging services arena.

KEYWORDS:

• NORCs
• aging
• culture
• public policy
• community

The authors thank Steven Woolf and Karen Yoskowitz for their assistance with this article.