Age-Friendly Livability Plan
The City of Bangor is a member of the AARP Age-Friendly Communities Network. Age-friendly or livable communities have features such as walkable streets, housing and transportation options, access to key services and opportunities for residents to participate in community activities.
The Bangor Livable Community Steering Committee is working to ensure Bangor is an active place where residents of all ages can live, work and play. The Bangor Livable Community Steering Committee is working to ensure Bangor is an active place where residents of all ages can live, work and play. The committee meets the first Friday of each month from 11:00-12:30 using Zoom technology. These meetings are open to the public and all are invited to attend. To request a link for the virtual meeting, please email anne.krieg@bangormaine.gov.
View Bangor’s Livability Map that provides a list of age-friendly resources for Bangor.
To find out more about an organization, click on the point on that map. A map key is provided in the lower left corner of the map. To turn on and off layers for each of the eight domains, use the menu in the top right corner of the map.
Mission Statement of the Bangor Livable Community Steering Committee:
The BLCC is devoted to fostering a collaborative and healthy community by encouraging organizations, residents, and city officials to work together to improve access to services and opportunities for all. We will accomplish our work by:
a. Providing a voice for the community, both residents and visitors, to advise and advocate about changes to make Bangor a Livable Community.
b. Encouraging a Livable Community that adapts and changes as the residents evolve.
c. Promoting activities to bring all generations together to foster social engagement and civic participation.
d. Upholding Livable Communities values so all citizens of Bangor can thrive and grow.
Vision Statement
Bangor, where all residents are empowered to contribute to the growth of a community that encourages citizens to thrive across the lifespan.
Values
The BLCC has the following set of values and principles to guide our work:
• Be efficient and build on existing resources in the community without duplicating efforts.
• Promote an intergenerational and lifespan perspective to program and policy planning.
• Work collaboratively with the Bangor City Council to advise on and support issues related to the Livable Community activities.
• Support an inclusive and diverse community where all residents have a voice in the life of the city.
• Encourage communication amongst all community groups, city officials and residents that fosters a transparent process for identifying solutions to community issues.
A History of Bangor’s Livable Communities Committee Work
The Bangor Livable Communities work started in December of 2015 when AARP Maine sent a survey to over 1,000 Bangor residents age 50 and older. Almost 450 respondents answered the survey and shared that:
• Their community is an excellent, very good or good place for older people to live according to nine out of ten respondents
• They have deep roots in their community. Nearly three-in-five (58%) have lived in their community for over 25 years.
In September of 2016, after receiving a formal Livable Communities Designation in July of 2016, a committee of Bangor residents and organizations participated in a four-month project of community-led focus groups. The focus groups were conducted in the community and were facilitated by staff and students from the University of Maine Center on Aging. From these focus groups came richly detailed conversations about the needs of residents in Bangor. The focus groups found that Bangor residents want:
• Improvements to city sidewalks, particularly in downtown Bangor;
• Expanded hours and routes for the city bus system, the Community Connector;
• Affordable housing for low income and low-middle income residents
With a large amount of data in hand from the surveys and focus groups, a formal group formed in January of 2017 called the Bangor Livable Communities Committee (BLCC). The group works with community members, organizations and city staff to learn about current projects and how they could engage various groups in a grassroots movement to contribute to the growth of the community without duplicating efforts already underway.