Salem for All Ages

In February 2015, Jewish Family & Children’s Service launched Salem for All Ages, a community-based project designed to build awareness of what it means to be an age-friendly city. Through a series of outreach events and information-gathering activities, this project focused on answering two key questions: What makes Salem a good place to grow older? What would make it better? As part of the project, a short survey was distributed to Salem residents age 50 and older, a cohort that now comprises one-third of the city’s population. A total of 209 residents responded to the survey, representing residents from all parts of the city and ranging in age from 50 to 90. Most respondents were women, and almost half had lived in Salem for 30 years or more, a clear indication that many Salem residents are “aging in place.”