South Dakota Represents at the 2018 AARP Livable Communities Conference
The annual AARP Livable Communities National Conference is an opportunity for elected officials, planning professionals, local leaders and community advocates from across the nation to share ideas, best practices and solutions for making towns, cities and communities more livable for people of all ages.
At the 2018 conference in Charlotte, NC, South Dakota was well represented in attendance and within the conference program. Attendees included:
Erik Gaikowski and Lindsey Holmquest, AARP South Dakota
Joe Bartman, Dakota Resources
Mary Michaels, Live Well Sioux Falls
Jeff Veltkamp, South Dakota Community Foundation
Leacey Brown, South Dakota State University Extension
Leacey Brown joined presenters from Massachusetts and California to present “Home for a Lifetime: The Power of Collaboration in Promoting Universal Design.” The panel discussed how universal design helps create lifetime housing as a way to meet the needs of older adults who desire to remain in their homes until end-of-life.
Erik Gaikowski and Joe Bartman were part of a panel discussion focused on the unique challenges and opportunities for creating livable communities in rural areas of the country. Highlights included addressing barriers that may be unique to rural communities (such as communications connectivity [broadband] and transportation) and exploring how to bring together partners to enhance livability in these areas.
Mary Michaels took part in the first-ever Innovation Showcase during the conference, a rapid-fire series of presentations (think short “TED Talk” style) from eight communities about projects to enhance livability. Mary shared the story of Move Well Sioux Falls, a first-ever community fitness festival held in August 2018, to showcase all the ways Sioux Falls residents can be physically active each day.
All of the attendees agreed that there was a tremendous wealth of information to bring home to South Dakota to help communities across the state pursue livability strategies.
“The speakers posed challenging questions,” said Lindsey Holmquest. “They got attendees thinking about creating a ‘community for all’ by asking who might be missing from livability conversations and by removing barriers to community services and facilities to ensure people of all ages can access everything from health care to housing and recreation.”
The importance of engaging community members in both formal and informal conversations about livability was another takeaway from the conference, according to Jeff Veltkamp. “One of the things that hit home for me was a speaker who said, ‘Before you can love your neighbor, you need to know your neighbor.’”