This initiative challenged organizations to submit big ideas to improve the lives of older adults in a targeted geographic and demographic space. The goal was to better understand the challenges that local communities face around this issue, as well as to advance promising project-based proposals. To ensure that the affected population's needs were met, participant groups had to include an older adult or a caregiver who worked in the field of elder care.
Submissions were reviewed by local and national experts and their feedback was shared anonymously with the participants. To further promote learning and exchange around the topic of aging, applicants participated in Carrot’s Peer-to-Peer Review, and the final four awardees formed a yearlong learning cohort during the subsequent grant period.
Carrot was also contracted to conduct outreach and engagement for this challenge. In the early stage of the program, this included researching the most relevant organizations and encouraging their participation. Carrot and Hillman also hosted webinars to answer questions in advance of key deadlines. The goal was to attract at least 60 registered teams – this phase concluded with 69 completed registrants with 42% of the registrants submitting a proposal, exceeding our goals by 116% in a targeted group of communities that included a wide range of local leaders, advocates, and changemakers (many of whom were not previously engaged with regional grantmakers).
There were 12 Pennsylvania cities represented among the applicant pool, including Pittsburgh, Charleroi, Ligonier, and Connellsville. The submissions also spanned a range of focus areas, including age-friendly community development, intergenerational programming, skill-building and employment for caregivers, and reducing ageism and social isolation. The goals of the Healthy Aging Challenge included both surfacing real and impactful proposals, while also surveying the local landscape to assess the potential of future engagements and the degree to which those participants could continue collaborating. As a result, the program was recognized by the United Nations as part of their initiative, the Decade of Healthy Ageing, as an example of effective engagement and solution-generating strategies.
