Prime Time Seniors members participate in an art class. The city is now gathering feedback from seniors on their needs and their experiences with city services. (From Prime Time Seniors)

City Gathering Feedback to Gauge the Needs, Experiences of Seniors

East Lansing has already gathered many accolades for its services available to seniors. Now, the city is looking to improve its offerings by surveying older residents in the community about their experiences and needs.

The Senior Commission, Prime Time Seniors program and Age Friendly Communities are teaming up to distribute the survey. The seniors were last surveyed in 2006, and the Senior Commission has decided it is time to update the data detailing what services East Lansing’s seniors use, and what changes to those services and amenities they would like to see.

The survey collects demographic information, the work status of respondents and asks if they participate in city programs. It also asks respondents to rate various city entities, like parks, and how the city scores on making essential services like transportation available to seniors.

The survey was released on Sept. 1 and will be open through Oct. 30, 2024. Paper copies will be distributed throughout assisted living facilities and other senior communities in the city. In addition, the survey can be taken online or accessed through the QR code below.

Scan this QR code to access the senior survey.

The survey can be completed anonymously, but if the respondents include their contact information, they will be entered into a drawing for one of five $75 gift certificates which can be used at downtown East Lansing businesses. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete.

Any resident needing help with the survey can contact Prime Time Seniors for assistance. 

“There is no barrier to filling out this survey that I can’t fix,” Prime Time Seniors Director Alesha Williams said. 

Prime Time Seniors Director Alesha Williams. (Courtesy of Carrie Sampson)

Kathy Bouchard-Wyant and Robbie Jameson have spear-headed the Senior Commission’s initiative. 

“If we are to serve the interests of East Lansing seniors, we should be asking what their needs are,” Bouchard-Wyant said.

Prime Time Seniors runs an extensive series of programs at the Hannah Community Center. Current programs offer classes in fitness and physical health, arts and crafts, language, mental health and writing. There are many social opportunities for seniors through Prime Time Seniors.

Williams noted that Prime Time Seniors is most interested in the survey because much of the current staff is relatively new. A large part of the survey addresses programs under her aegis, and she is very interested to see if those programs are meeting the needs of the senior community at large.

East Lansing Age Friendly Communities is part of an international effort by the World Health Organization and is strongly promoted by AARP across the United States. WHO has identified eight domains of social determinants of health that influence health outcomes and life satisfaction for older people. 

The first part of the survey being used by the Senior Commission will focus on public spaces and social participation. The second part of the survey will deal with Prime Time Seniors programs.

Jim Levande, the steering committee chair for Age Friendly Communities, is interested to see how the survey may help his program recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We were very active before [COVID], but things just kind of slowed down because no one was participating,” he said. “The pandemic kind of destroyed [our activities] but we’re back at it right now.”

Age Friendly Communities Steering Committee Chair Jim Levande. (Courtesy photo)

Levande is proud of East Lansing’s efforts with seniors. He notes that the city was the fifth in Michigan to be certified by the WHO and AARP. When Michigan State University was also certified as an Age Friendly Community, East Lansing became one of few areas in the country where both a large university and its host city were certified.

This joint certification is partially due to the contributions of Hannah Prins, a graduate student in the urban and regional planning program at MSU. Prins has been assisting in designing the survey and will be an active part of the data analysis team at survey’s end. 

Prins became involved with the Senior Commission in part through a practicum course at MSU and was intrigued by what the survey might accomplish. 

“I went to school for seven years so I could make a positive difference in the community. Doing this project means I’m finally getting to do that,” Prins said.

All three groups promoting this survey want to make sure that every senior citizen in East Lansing has an opportunity to have their voices heard. Bourchard-Wyant pointed out that the survey is not just targeting retired people. The survey team wants to hear the good and the bad from everyone 55 and older, retired or not. 

“We know that seniors want to be active.They want to be involved in their communities,” she said. “They want to volunteer. They want to be social.” 

Michigan State University urban and regional planning graduate student Hannah Prins helped design the survey currently being distributed to East Lansing seniors. (Courtesy photo)

The survey will inform the Senior Commission on how to help seniors achieve those goals.

When the results come in, the Senior Commission hopes to use the data to improve the quality of life for East Lansing seniors. In the past, feedback from seniors has led to positive changes in the city. The survey team pointed to three times in the past when senior feedback led to changes.

  • The stoplights at Grand River and Abbot were poorly timed for pedestrians creating dangerous situations. When made aware of this, the city’s transportation department adjusted the lights.
  • The Senior Commission was contacted by hikers and walkers using the trails off Coleman Road. For the entire length of the trails, there were no benches for seniors who needed an occasional rest. Benches have since been installed.
  • The residents of Newman Lofts had no place in front of their building to be picked up or dropped off. Following feedback from those residents, the city created a well-marked zone in front of the building to make pick-ups and drop-offs safer.

Bouchard-Wyant noted that “It’s the small things that can have a huge effect on people’s lives.”

Once the survey is completed, Williams expects they will need to create focus groups to analyze the data and to make plans to implement any desired changes. The data will also be shared with the Tri-County Office on Aging and Age Alive at MSU.

The planners have ambitious goals for the reach of this survey. East Lansing has nearly 5,800 people who are 55+ years old. That’s 17% of the city’s population. Williams would like to see 100% of those people express their views. 

“Our goal is to hear from everyone aged 55 and older! The more input we collect, the better equipped we’ll be to make informed decisions over the next few years about what this population needs and desires from the city,” Williams said.