Aging Commission Steps Up Wider Outreach

Once a month in the middle of the afternoon, nine residents past their 50s meet on the second floor of the Memorial American Legion Civic Center to discuss the major issues facing Morton Grove’s senior citizens. For the month of February, such an event occurred this week.

This is the Advisory Commission on Aging, its members individually appointed by the mayor to serve as the ears and mouth of the senior community, which makes up around 22 percent of the village’s population, according to 2000 Census data. The commission’s job is to tell village leaders what seniors need and to hunt for resources to meet those needs. 

Throughout its more than three decades of existence, this group has rallied around a handful issues pertinent to the elderly, such as implementing affordable senior housing and preserving the village's senior center. But lately, the largely empty audience chairs at monthly meetings have left the group wondering what it should be focusing on. 

The commissioners have decided to listen to the silence. They’re going public.  

“We can’t do anything if we don’t know what the issues are,” said Alice Rupkey, who is chairwoman this year under an annual rotating schedule. “We can’t always give answers, but we can direct them where to go.”

Since its New Year’s resolution to become more visible, the group has stepped into action: Plans have been made to hold  at popular senior hangouts, such as the library and the senior center; commissioner Nancy Brothers, who manages public relations at the Morton Grove Public Library, is advertising commission meetings in the library’s newsletter; and Rupkey plans to try to reach residents at an upcoming village board meeting.

Task force created

While they wait for seniors to voice their concerns, the commission took action Tuesday to help the most vulnerable elderly residents in the village, forming a volunteer task force. Six commissioners have been charged with investigating what it takes to develop a network of reliable volunteers to provide free assistance and transportation to homebound seniors.

The task force was commissioner Iris Nason’s idea, sparked after recently running into an elderly resident who was accompanied by his daughter, grandchild and a respirator.

“I wish we had a backup of volunteers to help seniors when they need care,” Nason told Patch, before broaching the subject to the group. “That’s what the commission should be doing, helping the seniors who can’t help themselves. If you haven’t got family here, it’s going to be a frightening thing.”

The village currently runs a volunteer program called CHORE, which matches teenagers with seniors in need of assistance. But Jackie Walker-O’Keefe, director of family and senior services and a village staff liaison to the board, said volunteers have been sparse in recent years, despite annual efforts to reach out to area high schools. The North Shore Senior Center in Morton Grove* (NSSC) also offers transportation services to seniors, but exclusively for medical appointments.

“It’s a huge undertaking,” said Associate Director of Lifelong Learning* Monica Lockie, a liaison to the commission. “Who would coordinate all this? Who would take phone calls?”  

But the commission is no stranger to lengthy endeavors. About six years ago, the group determined that there was an immediate need for affordable senior housing, and a joint task force was formed with members from the Community Relations Commission. This year an independent senior living center, the , is being built, with designated units for low-income seniors.

Jack Malloy, the aging commission’s longest-serving member, at 15 years, was on the task force. The 87-year-old commissioner said affordable senior housing has been a long time coming to the village.

“They came up with more senior housing, but it’s not affordable,” Malloy said. “There’s a big difference between senior housing and affordable senior housing. But it’s a start."

The commissions' role

The Commission on Aging’s role is advisory in nature. Members cannot create policies or handle funds; they can only make recommendations to the Village Board of Trustees. As with the town’s other boards, aging commissioners are appointed by the mayor for three-year terms with majority approval by the trustees and they can serve numerous terms. Most of the current members were approached at one point by a village leader and asked to apply.

Current commissioners include Rupkey, Nason, Brothers, Malloy, Nobel LeHew, Anne Marrazzo, Barbara Novick, Thomas Stockenberg and Brian Sullivan. Eileen Coursey, who also serves on the park district board, has been a longtime commissioner, but many of the current members have not met her because she never attends meetings.

The village requires that the commission includes two public representatives: Brothers, who represents the library, and Brian Sullivan, the executive director of the Morton Grove Park District. He has said that Coursey’s function is mostly as an alternate park district representative in his absence. Each meeting is usually attended by three nonvoting liaisons: village trustee John Thill, staff member Walker-O’Keefe and Lockie, who recently replaced NSSC Lifelong Learning Director Mary Futrell.

Brothers, 60, said she joined the commission last year because she thought Morton Grove’s seniors needed a bigger voice in local government. 

“I think a foundation is being built for making an impact,” she said, referring to the commission’s recent initiatives.

Anne Marrazzo, 81, last year’s chairwoman, joined the commission in the late 1990s. After retiring from teaching, Marrazzo wanted to use her time to be active in the community that she’s lived in for 55 years. She also volunteers at the senior center and at the American Legion. The only two familiar faces on the commission when she first joined were Malloy and LeHew.

“I think [the commission] is better now,” Marrazzo said. “It used to be a lot quieter. We’ve advanced and looked into things that people want.

"I don’t think we knew at the time how far we were allowed to go as a commission. As the years go by, you learn how to be able to do different things.” 

The next Commission on Aging meeting is 1 p.m. March 8 at the Morton Grove Public Library.

*Correction: The name of the center is North Shore Senior Center in Morton Grove, not Morton Grove North Shore Senior Center. Monica Lockie's title is Associate Director of Lifelong Learning, not assistant director of NSSC.