Emily Williams’ father was the best French chef there was, by her standards. Williams’ favorite recipe of his was pulled from a Julia Child cookbook — the tarte aux pommes, or apple tart. It features a shortcrust pastry base, glazed apple slices and lots of butter.
“Every time we make a French dish, I think of him,” Williams said.
Williams’ father died when she was a young adult, after a fall in his rural Maine home. He was 76.
“If you’re an isolated adult and you’re kind of in trouble, you’re going to need to know who to call,” Williams said. “If the seniors of that community know about their local senior center, they have a much better chance of staying connected.”
Creating that connection is one of the main goals of the town’s new senior survey, said Williams, who is the director of the Brookline Council of Aging and Senior Center.
Brookline released a townwide survey to assess the needs of Brookline’s seniors in order to improve town resources and programs for its older population.
Residents 60 years and up are encouraged to fill out the survey, which is available online and has been mailed to around 5,000 people. Paper copies of the survey are available at Town Hall, the Senior Center and all three Brookline libraries. The survey is open until March 20.
The survey was made possible through a collaboration with the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. It is funded partly by the town and by a $50,000 state grant.
The survey will help town officials understand the experiences of Brookline’s seniors — who make up over 20% of the town’s population — in order to better plan for what lies ahead, Williams said.
“We want everybody to fill out the survey so we can plan for their future, so they can stay in Brookline,” Williams said. “We can have them live really healthy, really vibrant lives and not have to leave.”
The survey is offered in multiple languages, such as English, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Chinese.
“We want a loud and vocal group of residents to be able to directly have input into the future of aging in Brookline,” Williams said, “even if English is their second language.”
Caitlin Coyle, the director of the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging at UMass Boston, was part of the team that organized the survey. After a working group of residents and council members came together, they combed through the survey, “question by question,” to make sure each one was vetted and air tight, Coyle said.
“We’re not just coming in and giving you the same survey that we’ve given at every community,” Coyle said. “We’re really taking the time to make sure that it aligns with Brookline and that people are directly involved in the process, so that the information that is produced can be best used and acted upon.”
The data collected will be used to improve quality life not only for older adults but for people across generations, Coyle said.
“If we widen sidewalks for wheelchairs and walkers, we’re also making them wide enough for strollers,” Coyle said. “If we make shaded seating available for seniors, we’re also making it available for people with pets.”
When a community takes initiative to understand the senior population, Coyle said it showcases what the community values.
“We’re all going to get there,” Coyle said.
Joan Lancourt, a retiree living in Brookline, was on the advisory committee for the senior survey, meaning she was there from the beginning. At 84 years old, she said she has a “personal stake in the game.”
“Society hasn’t done a very good job to date in really looking at what older people need,” Lancourt said. “Finding out what those are is critical to being able to provide the services that are most needed.”
Lancourt said there probably are gaps in senior services that the town will be able to fill once the survey responses roll in.
Some changes that Lancourt hopes to see following the survey include services for seniors with fixed incomes, mobility accommodations and technology support.
“But until we have more data, it’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks,” Lancourt said.
Lancourt said she wants to ensure that everyone has access to what they need.
“The only way that we can really do that is to ask them,” Lancourt said.
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
