Half Moon Bay-Coastside
Achieved AARP/World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly community designation on March 2022.
Please watch the following video to learn more about Half Moon Bay’s journey to join the WHO/AARP age-friendly network:
An Age-Friendly Community (AFC) Oversight Group (formerly known as the Half Moon Bay Coastside AFC Coalition) in the San Francisco, California, Bay Area was started in August 2021.
The group is a collaboration with the City of Half Moon Bay and local stakeholder non-profit/community organizations which serve not only the City of Half Moon Bay but also the many unincorporated communities north and south along this coastal region. The City of Half Moon Bay is a partner in this initiative but not the driving force for all projects. The collaboration will also include businesses, the County, and residents interested in the well-being of older adults in this region.
The Age-Friendly Community Oversight Group coordinates and supports the following age-friendly Half Moon Bay-Coastside Projects that are currently in the beginning stages of implementation or will begin to be implemented in 2023.
The group will not necessarily lead these projects. Rather, this group will catalyze to bring together local organizations and stakeholders together to move each project forward. The AFC Group will be available for each “project sub-committee” to provide in-kind support and guidance as each group proceeds with their project planning, development, and implementation of their AFC project.
Domain: Communication and Information
Develop a plan to improve communications about events and services for older adults.
An Improved Communication sub-committee was formed to look at ways to improve access to information. One of their first steps was to meet with the local newspaper, the Half Moon Bay Review, to discuss ways that they can resume dedicating a section of their weekly newspaper to news and information of interest to older adults. In addition, they have pledged to assist the newspaper with content suggestions for this section regularly. Since the Half Moon Bay Review is owned by the same organization that also publishes the Pacifica Tribune that serves the nearby community of Pacifica, they also have started dedicating a section of the Tribune to news and information of interest to older residents in Pacifica.
Domain: Community Support and Health Care
Form a Coastside healthcare access advocacy committee.
The need for easier access to health care in their entire coastside region has been well-known for some time and was reinforced when local residents were asked about unmet needs in this area. Most healthcare requires at least a 15-minute drive over the coastal hills to communities along San Francisco Bay, where most healthcare services are located.
The Coastside Healthcare Advocacy committee has been formed. They are currently looking at various ways to advocate for increased local access to healthcare by not only older residents in their Coastside communities but for greater access to healthcare for residents of all ages.
Domain: Housing
Provide affordable housing search and application strategy workshops.
Many of the residents the planning group talked to about unmet needs mentioned their concern about the high rents for apartments and houses for themselves as well as people they know. A sub-committee has been formed to replicate an affordable housing workshop developed by the Pacifica Age Friendly Community Coalition. This committee provides information on how older adults (60 and over) can search and apply for subsidized housing and other resources, such as a county-wide Shared Housing program, Accessory Dwelling Units, and cooperative shared rental housing arrangements. Workshop attendees are encouraged to seek support, as needed, with their search from Coastside Hope, the non-profit resource center that the County designates as the “CORE Service Agency” for their Coastside region. The first workshop will take place in January 2023, Date TBA.
Domain: Respect and Inclusion
Age-Friendly Business/Community Organization Training and Recognition Project.
A sub-committee has been established to look at ways that local businesses need to enhance their “age-friendliness” training needs and establish a program of recognizing local businesses that have a reputation for treating their older customers with dignity and respect. They expect to begin the implementation of this project in 2023.