AGING IN OUR COMMUNITY A Message from Our President & CEO, Robert Ojeda, PhD
What if I asked you this question: what would our community look like in 2036 if all older adults were thriving? Take a minute with that. Picture your street, your neighbors, your own life ten years from now. Over the past several months, I have
adults are not only served by their community; they lead it. And in that picture, we have found the root cause of poverty among older adults and solved it, not through one agency or one program, but together, through collective impact. It is a powerful picture. Then one participant said something I have not been able to set down: hope does not solve problems. That statement has stayed with me because it is true. Hope matters. It is where every change begins. But hope that stays a feeling changes nothing for the woman down the street skipping meals to pay her electric bill. Hope becomes useful when it becomes a plan, and a plan becomes real when people show up to carry it out. We have seen what that looks like. This year, more than 50 older adults gathered to learn their voting rights through Know Your Rights, a partnership with AARP
asked this question across Pima County. I asked it at our Elder
Robert Ojeda, PhD
Alliance meeting, where more than 80 organizations come together on behalf of older adults. I asked it of our own staff at our all-staff retreat. The answers have been energizing. People describe different things, but their visions intersect. Together they paint a picture of a Pima County where older adults have every resource they need to age with dignity. No one chooses between rent and medicine. Getting to the doctor, the grocery store, or the polls is simple. Older
asks each of us to decide what we will do, not just what we wish for. The answers will not come from PCOA alone. They will come from you. So I am asking you directly. How do we, as a community, turn hope into action? What would you do first? What is already working in your neighborhood that we should build on? What stands in the way? Please let us know. Share your vision for an age-friendly Pima County, where all older adults age with dignity, with Debbie Sisco Rich, Chief Development Officer, at drich@pcoa.org. Ten years is not very long. The Pima County we imagine in 2036 will be built by the choices we make now.
and the League of Women Voters. That is hope with its sleeves rolled up. The harder work is making that the rule rather than the exception. It asks organizations to stop working side by side and start working together around shared goals. It asks older adults to take their seats at the table, not as people to be helped, but as leaders who know best what their community needs. And it
Let’s make them together. With respect and gratitude,
Robert Ojeda, PhD President & Chief Executive Officer Pima Council on Aging
November & December 2026, Never Too Late | Page 3
Pima Council on Aging
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online