The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, and
the Tufts Health Plan Foundation convened a summit on May 9, 2016 that brought together
leaders from 84 organizations interested in age-friendly and dementia-friendly work. A need identified at the Summit was for a comprehensive look at the work currently being done on agefriendly and dementia-friendly activities. This report addresses this need by highlighting findings of an environmental scan (i.e., in-depth inventory) of dementia-friendly and age-friendly communities conducted between August 2016 and January 2017 by a research team at the Gerontology Institute of the University of Massachusetts Boston led by professors Beth Dugan and Nina Silverstein. Our aim is to not “reinvent the wheel,” but to facilitate and accelerate stakeholder progress in making Massachusetts a great place to grow up and grow old in.
