In partnership with the Connecticut Age Well Collaborative and Connecticut Community Care, a series of banners in West Hartford Center promote how individuals are ‘Aging and Growing Well’ as part of an age inclusive initiative that celebrates aging together. 

By Maddie O’Connell

As residents and visitors stroll through West Hartford Center, they are invited to look up, to draw their attention to the banners hanging from the lampposts. Featuring community-submitted photographs, the banners celebrate this year’s town banner series theme, “Aging and Growing Well in West Hartford.”

The display includes 23 banners selected from local submissions.

Each year, West Hartford selects a new theme for the banners displayed on the block of South Main Street between Town Hall and Farmington Avenue, and invites community members to participate. In this year’s series, residents of all ages were invited to submit photographs illustrating what it means to “showcase yourselves aging and growing well.”

Leah Farrell, Programs, Publicity and Outreach Librarian, who was involved in banner selection and creation, shared that after the images were selected, “Each submitter was asked to share one word representing them and how they are aging and growing well.” Farrell said those involved in the selection process looked for photos that reflected the “diversity of ages and activities” found throughout West Hartford.

This year’s banner theme was chosen in partnership with the Connecticut Age Well Collaborative Fellowship, which is a local year-long program dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring change to make Connecticut a more age-friendly and inclusive community. Adrienne Billings-Smith, manager of West Hartford’s Office of Employee Development and Community Engagement, and Rebecca Sears, Director of Senior Centers, were among those involved in the fellowship. As Billings-Smith described, “We had discussions on the importance of aging well, and what that would look like in our actual communities and where the stakeholders were in our actual communities and partners.” Billings-Smith helped build the partnership between Connecticut Community Care and the Age Well Collaborative.

Drawing on ideas from those discussions, fellowship members developed the banner theme and created sample photographs that reflected that vision. Fellowship members Kevin Ryan, Robin Clare, Gail Crockett, and Diane Kaczmarcyk finalized the theme of aging and growing well in West Hartford and contributed the four original photos which began the series.“It was important that all ages were included, because we want people to stay. We want people to feel like they belong from the moment they’re born here, until the moment they leave,” shared Billings-Smith regarding the selection of the theme.

Since May, the age-friendly initiative – which included the age-friendly survey, designed to identify ways accessibility can be improved to make West Hartford inclusive to all ages – has been running under the guidance of Sears, Farrell, and Billings-Smith. After looking at the input from the survey and working with the fellowship, “The general feeling behind all of this was that there can be a negative connotation to aging. We’re a very youth-centered culture, and so it was really important for people to visually see how empowering the aging process can be and is,” Sears reflected.

“This is a snapshot of what it looks like to age,” said Sears. “It helps start a dialogue around the misconceptions of aging and can help steer the conversation in the direction of the benefits of aging, the joy of aging, and what it really means to grow older within the community.”

Community involvement was central not only to the banner images but also to the project’s development. Farrell reached out to each submitter to select the word that would correlate to their image. “People put a lot of thought into it,” shared Farrell in reflection on the process. There were many individuals involved in community surveys and discussions as well as those involved in the fellowship. There were many community members eager to submit images and share their stories. The banner series is a community effort also made possible by West Hartford Municipal Parking, which funds and installs the banners.

“We’re all aging every minute of the day,” said Billings-Smith, a powerful testament to the point that all community members are involved in this initiative. “We’re living in this community together, and we’re thriving in this community together,” continued Billings-Smith in regard to why this initiative holds such value within the West Hartford community.

“The center of all this is it doesn’t matter what your ability is, you’re here, and that’s what matters. You’re here, and you’re part of the community,” shared Sears. Aging and growing well truly fit within the West Hartford community and help raise awareness for the local opportunities for age-friendly involvement.

One such opportunity is the Let’s Be Friends Circle, which is a class led by fellowship member and banner theme creator Kevin Ryan. Registration is free and currently open. The program offers residents an opportunity to connect with others while exploring community resources and healthy aging. Sears shared that “they are all talking about how this isn’t the last act in life. This is the next act, the next opportunity to connect with your passions and your purpose. His message is to never stop, never stop learning, never stop being curious, never stop creating.”

When looking at the aging and growing well theme, Sears shared that “people need to remember the 15-year-old in you never goes away. The 8-year-old in you never goes away. It just wears different skin, and the abilities change over time, but that core person of who you are, when you were your most curious, your most adventurous, your most alive, your most full of joy, that person remains with you forever. That’s ageless.”

The banners will remain on display through the end of the year as part of the town’s ongoing age-friendly initiative. There will be a community discussion held to reflect on the several thousand responses to the age-friendly survey, with information to come on the Age Friendly Communities Page.

As Billings-Smith shared, the goal is “to do a deep dive into what we can do as a community, to continue to build upon West Hartford being an age-friendly community for all ages. So that means a place you can grow within the community.”

Through the photographs and personal stories the The Aging and Growing Well banner series showcases, West Hartford celebrates the people who make up the community and encourages residents to rethink what it means to grow older.

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