2025 Grant: Blueprint for Seniors

Did you know Sunnyvale has been designated as an Age-Friendly Community by the World Health Organization (WHO) and AARP? Yes indeed! Sunnyvale has joined a number of other cities and communities recognized by WHO and AARP interested in optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security for all people to ensure quality of life and dignity as people age.

Cherryhill’s 2025 grant project “Blueprint for Seniors” is sponsored by the City of Sunnyvale and is designed to:

  • Make Cherryhill residents aware that Sunnyvale is designated as an Age-Friendly City and provide information about Sunnyvale’s Age-Friendly Action Plan.
  • Acquaint Cherryhill residents with the Sunnyvale Senior Center and its activities and promote membership registration and participation.
  • Create a sustainable outreach structure within Cherryhill to support the needs of seniors within Cherryhill Neighborhood Association.

Some of the ideas we propose to implement are:

  • Establish a Cherryhill “Senior Advocates” Committee.
  • Host information/outreach tables at several of our Cherryhill events.
  • Partner with the Sunnyvale Senior Center.
  • Encourage Cherryhill seniors to share their ideas about how to make Cherryhill NA and Sunnyvale sustainable Age-Friendly communities!

Want to learn more about our efforts within Cherryhill Neighborhood? Email SeniorAdvocates@cherryhillna.org to get started.

City of Sunnyvale Joins WHO’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities

In June 2017, the Sunnyvale City Council adopted a resolution to join the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities (see sidebar) and authorized the submission of application materials.

Through community outreach, the City identified our older residents’ most pressing issues from among the eight domains of age-friendliness.

The concept of Age-Friendly cities initiated from a study the World Health Organization (WHO) developed to address two major global trends— rapid aging and increasing urbanization. From this study, WHO identified eight domains that are at the core of age-friendly cities and then further developed a checklist cities could use to assess their “age-friendliness” (WHO, 2007).

These issues were the focus of the Sunnyvale’s first Age-Friendly Action Plan (see sidebar) which was presented to Council for approval in Nov. 2019. In February 2020, the Action Plan was approved by WHO and AARP.

Link to Sunnyvale’s Age-Friendly Information: https://www.sunnyvale.ca.gov/your-government/governance/advisory-committees

AARP Livability Index

One way to understand the needs of seniors in Sunnyvale is to utilize the AARP livability index. The Livability Index is a signature initiative of the Public Policy Institute to measure the quality of life in American communities across multiple dimensions. The Livability Index allows users to compare communities, adjust scores based on personal preferences and learn how to take action to make their own communities more livable. (Age-friendly Sunnyvale Action Plan, 2019)