The Center for Age-Friendly Excellence (CAFE) continues as a technical assistance partner with Santa Clara County bringing best practices and expertise to the continuing implementation of the successful 15 city and county age-friendly cities initiative.

The pioneering project in Santa Clara County consisted of organizing 15 city and county senior task forces to collaborate toward the objectives of: community organizing, assessment of needs through focus groups, and evidence-based project development. This work resulted in individualized city and community applications to WHO in Geneva to join their Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities.

CAFE accomplished this by joining a coalition of aging services professionals, elected officials, and community leaders. CAFE worked in partnership with a CORE team of Santa Clara County senior staff, the Los Altos Community Foundation, Santa Clara County elected political leaders, PRx Digital, and colleagues at San Jose State and San Francisco State Universities. Through this effort, Santa Clara cities and County became the first age-friendly collective in the United States.