The state’s five area agencies on aging have created a new nonprofit partnership.
Jane Catton is CEO of Age Well, which serves older adults in northwestern Vermont.
She says the new Vermont Aging Network Consortium is the result of nearly two years of hard work between the member groups, and that the new nonprofit will help them reduce costs and increase collaboration.
“What this consortium will do is allow us to all work together more closely to leverage economies of scale, reduce duplication so that we can reinvest back into our individual agencies to serve more clients,” Catton said.
The five agencies provide a range of local services to older Vermonters. Representatives from each will serve on the new consortium’s board of directors, and Catton says the consortium will hire an executive director in the next several months.
“We have a lot of work to do. But we are very focused on our mission, which is to serve older Vermonters who are vulnerable, who benefit from our services at the area agencies on aging,” Catton said. “And this new journey is a way for us to think about sustained inability over time, and really start to shore that up together.”
Vermont’s population is among the oldest in the nation.
Catton says all five agencies will help oversee the new partnership while continuing to operate independently.
Written by Nina Keck for Vermont Public