Volunteers with Northwest Neighbors Connecting provide services aimed at helping older neighborhood residents remain in their homes as long as possible. Photo courtesy of CHAI Baltimore.

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For those aging in their longtime home, tasks that used to be routine may over time become daunting. Driving at night and getting to medical appointments might become challenging, too. And for those who live alone, life can become, well, lonely.

If you happen to live in northwest Baltimore, however, a volunteer group can be of help. Founded in 2012, Northwest Neighbors Connecting (NNC) has a mission to help older residents of the area remain safely in their homes for as long as possible, aiding with household tasks and providing ways for them to stay socially active and involved in life.

For just $10 a month (or less, depending on financial situations), the group’s 130 members can get discounted rides, in-home technological assistance, help with household tasks like installing grab bars, and — perhaps most importantly — good company.

“It is life-changing,” said Anne Shimanovich, program director of Aging in Community at Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. (CHAI), which partners with NNC.

The organization hosts monthly meetups, art classes and bus trips, but it also keeps in touch with its members by phone.

“We call our members at least once a week, so we check in and find out what they need,” she said.

On the second Tuesday of every month, NNC hosts monthly get-togethers, often with a speaker, music and dancing at the Myerberg Center.

These gatherings are free to anyone who’s interested. “People are welcome to come and see what we’re all about at no cost,” Shimanovich said.

What is a village?

Northwest Neighbors Connecting is an example of a “village” that supports older neighbors.

“It’s not a physical place; it’s a volunteer support group,” explained Caroline
McKelden Wayner, the former executive director of Village at Home, an organization that helped older residents in 20 Baltimore neighborhoods before closing down during the pandemic.

A village, Wayner said, “really does enable you to age at home for longer than you would normally be able to. It’s that extra support network when you just need a little bit of support to stay at home.”

The first such “village” was formed in Boston 21 years ago. Longtime residents of Beacon Hill, a downtown neighborhood, didn’t want to move out, so they pitched in to hire a concierge to find and train volunteers to help with small tasks as they aged.

That grew into Beacon Hill Village, and became so successful that it spawned a nationwide movement and even published a guide explaining how to form your own village.

Today, a national organization called Village to Village Network helps support and professionalize more than 250 villages throughout the country.

Baltimore’s lack of villages

Although there are dozens of such villages in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, Baltimore only has one or two. There are a few explanations why the village model hasn’t taken off here.

“In Baltimore, many people still have relatives in town,” Wayner pointed out. Older adults often rely on younger family members to give them rides or help around the house.

In addition, Baltimore has many thriving Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) or Life Plan communities.

“We have a huge number of CCRC communities — they’re hugely popular in our area — so a lot of people who might use a village” don’t need it, Wayner said.

Often, the people who know what they need are the ones who form a village, as was the case in Beacon Hill. “The best kind of villages are the kind that pop up organically,” Wayner said.

Help from the state

Sometimes, villages need a little more help and money to survive. The new Maryland Secretary of Aging, Carmel Roques, has tasked the Maryland Department of Aging, which she leads, to find the best strategies to help Marylanders who want to start their own villages.

“The main thing that we’re doing is to understand how to best provide support to help the villages,” Roques said. “There are administrative costs associated with running a village, so we’re looking at providing technological assistance and administrative assistance.”

To that end, the department included grants for six villages in its 2024 budget.

“We’ve looked at the village model as a really positive opportunity to make sure that the local neighborhood [itself] can be engaged in offering direct services, referrals, helping to combat social isolation, really being able to be very customized to that local community,” Roques said.

“Having [these services] delivered by the community themselves is probably one of the best ways to do that.”

Roques is also committed to helping underserved communities start villages. “We’re looking at making sure that the resources we have are targeting those communities that tend to have less resources and services and maybe don’t have a village,” she said.

Building social ties

Whether you join a village as a member or a volunteer, the organization can bring you closer to your neighbors.

Cheswolde resident Heidi Schloss started volunteering for NNC a decade ago, after she retired as a Baltimore City art teacher.

“I’ve made some good friends there over the years,” she said. “It’s a nice diverse group, which is wonderful for some of the folks who never got the opportunity to meet people from diverse groups.”

Schloss teaches art classes to NNC members once a month, writes articles for its newsletter, and co-chairs the trips committee, which organizes outings to places like the Baltimore Museum of Art and Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton.

“This past year, we’ve been doing a lot of museums of different types,” Schloss said.

For information on Aging in Community programs, services and events, visit chaibaltimore.org/nnc or call (410) 500-LIFE (5433).