2023 AARP Livable Communities Economic Development Workshop: Local Economies

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Plenary Panel — Local Economies

Carly Roszkowski: We're about to start our next discussion on our fourth theme, local economies. We'll be talking about how livability efforts provide opportunities for residents to support the economy through paid and unpaid contributions, such as volunteerism, caregiving, and charitable donations. But before we jump into the panel, let's start with a quick quiz. As a reminder, you can either go to Slido in your web browser and enter the event code livable2023 or just scan the QR code on your screen. 

As people live longer and healthier lives, they are contributing to communities and fueling economic growth well past the traditional retirement age. And as growing numbers of older adults work, pay taxes, support the job market, and make unpaid contributions such as charitable giving and family caregiving, they provide benefits to people of all ages and generations.

So our question is, how much of every dollar spent by American households is attributable to the 50 plus population. Is it 56 cents, 24 cents, 40 cents, or 15 cents? So go to Slido and choose your option. Mike, what are we seeing? 

Mike Watson: Well, Carly and folks who are tuning in on the screen can see that there is a clear favorite in these answers. About 6 in 10 folks are saying that 56 percent or 56 cents on every dollar spent by American households is attributable to the 50 plus population. Another 25 percent of people are saying 40 cents. And then a few, a smaller number rounding out the other answers. So again, it sounds like 56 cents is the clear favorite here.

Carly Roszkowski: Well, the favorite is the correct answer. According to AARP's Longevity Economy Outlook, 56 cents of every dollar spent in the U.S. in 2018 was attributable to the 50 plus population. And this share is set to increase up to 61 cents by 2050. 

According to AARP's report, The Economic Impact of Supporting Working Family Caregivers, if family caregivers age 50 plus have access to support in the workplace, U.S. GDP could grow by an additional 1.7 trillion in 2030. That's a figure equivalent to the state of New York's total economy and larger than Florida's. And by 4.1 trillion in 2050. An increase equal to the current combined economies of both California and Florida. 

Mike Watson: Let's get to our next panel on local economies, and we'll touch on that very topic. As before, there will be opportunities to ask questions and respond to polls through Slido. So, please make sure to share your thoughts. You can either go to Slido in your browser and enter the event code, Livable2023, or just scan the QR code on the screen. 

Now I'd like to welcome our next moderator, Tricia Sandiego, a senior advisor for AARP Caregiving and Health. Welcome, Tricia. Over to you. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me. I'm joined by two fantastic women that are here to talk about how livability efforts provide opportunities for residents to support the economy through paid and unpaid contributions, such as volunteerism, caregiving, and charitable donation.

With us today is Lily Hoffman, the Associate Director of Programs of Habitat for Humanity International's housing and community strategy. She works to support the Habitat Network in implementing strategies that improve racial, health, and housing equity. 

I'm also excited to introduce Heather Black, the Vice President of United Way Worldwide's 211 system strategy. She previously served as a vice president for United Way of North Carolina. Welcome, Lily and Heather. Thanks for joining. 

All right, let's kick things off with the Slido question. At AARP, we would not be where we are today without the service of our 50,000 plus volunteers across the country. These volunteers lend their time and talents to meet real community needs. Unpaid contributions are critical to the success of local economies and older adults often play a key role. 

What are some ways in which older adults enhance your community's local economies through unpaid contributions such as volunteerism and caregiving? We'd love to hear from you. What are some, some thoughts? Type your answers into the Slido. How are older adults contributing to the local economies in your community? 

I'm seeing after school programs, volunteering, which is what the session's about today, tutoring, food pantries, delivering meals, a lot of, community based work for volunteering, all these opportunities.

Heather, do you see any words here that stand out to you? 

Heather Black: Well, every one of them does, because United Way, of course, has a patchwork and a framework of 1,100 United Ways around the country that work to fund many of these organizations that I believe these folks are volunteering at. And then, of course, our 211 system makes referrals to individuals who call us every day with needs and we send them to these organizations, so it is this, support of volunteers and individuals and communities that make these resources and services available to those who have needs. So I think it's great to see such a diverse set of ideas here of all the many ways individuals can support the resources in their community.

Tricia Sandiego: I agree, and it keeps coming. Um, Lily, what are some of your initial thoughts on the results from the audience? 

Lily Hoffman: Similarly, just really excited to see all of the ways in which It differs, and what really stuck out to me too was mentoring, you know, we rely so heavily on volunteers at Habitat for Humanity International in some of the real tangible physical ways, but also just, I think, through storytelling and mentoring, it's such a critical piece that I love to see highlighted.

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks for that. Our audience really appreciates your thoughtful insights. The first question I have is going to go to you, Lily. Annually, more than 500,000 Habitat volunteers help build, advocate, and raise awareness about the need for shelter. Habitat for Humanity engages volunteers who play a key role in the development of affordable housing across the country.

What is the economic impact of this volunteer fueled revitalization in communities nationwide? 

Lily Hoffman: Thank you so much. It's such a great question. I just want to say to start, you know, Habitat for Humanity International are so grateful for the incredible volunteers all across the world and, and specifically in the U.S. Habitat investments created over $2.62 billion of economic activity, which included paying over 1.14 billion dollars just in labor income alone. So I think that gives you a sense of the ways in which volunteering on the Habitat Network really fuels billions of dollars in economic impact.

We also know that Habitat annually helps more than 33,000 families to be able to access safe, decent, affordable housing. And there's also longer term economic impacts of that for those families and communities. So we could talk for a really long time, I think, about all of the different ways in which housing and volunteering on the network impacts economic development, but I also just want to say that in addition to economic development, we know that volunteering has an impact on individuals, that there's a lot of research that shows that it impacts their health, it improves wellbeing, reduces It can cause depression and stress and that it even has reduced risk of cognitive decline over time.

So, there's just benefits both economically, socially, in terms of health and also, you mentioned advocacy and awareness. You know, that's such a critical piece, not just volunteers showing up on the build site, but what they learn there and take back to their communities and the conversations that they have about affordable housing and the real need for it, you know, that's kind of the gift that keeps on giving even after that initial volunteer engagement. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thank you. Thanks, Lily. I love that idea of sort of mutual benefit for volunteerism. 

Heather, our next question is for you. According to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving's 2020 report, 1 in 5 adults are unpaid caregivers, which equates to over 470 billion in unpaid care each year. United Way 211 is an around the clock resource that connects people across the country to resources, and in partnership with AARP, has expanded their reach to caregivers through the Caregiver Outreach Program. How does United Way empower people, especially older adults and family caregivers? And secondly, how does supporting caregivers boost the economy?

Heather Black: Sure. Great questions. Well, I think information is power and that is the beauty and the value of 211 is having access to accurate and vetted information about community resources. And often when someone has to step into the role of a caregiver, it may be something they didn't plan for. It may be unexpected.

And as we saw in the earlier video, it's often in addition to, in addition to a lot of other tasks that they have on their plate, whether it's a job or caring for their own children or family, especially if you're taking on the role of caregiving for an aging parent. So I think it's really important to recognize that you're not the first person, you're not alone in taking on this task, and that there are a lot of resources in our communities and it's okay to ask for help.

So that's what 211's here for, and especially with this amazing partnership between AARP and United Way and 211 called the Caregiver Outreach Program, where you can simply dial 2-1-1 and ask if there are some specific resources in your community to support caregivers. Could be things like home delivered meals that might help one or two days a week with the individual that you're caring for. It could be support groups in your community. It could be information about recreation and exercise classes in your community for the individual that you care for, depending on their capability level. And also about respite care. I think often home caregivers don't realize that there are benefits that will actually give you a break because you do want to take care of yourself, um, so that you are best able to take care of that loved one as the, as they continue to pro to progress through their, their needs.

And then I think you talked about the economic impact, and I think we can all recognize that there is a true economic value to being able to stay at home. There is an immense cost to out of home care. So the amount of time that a family can continue to care for a loved one in home not only has a financial benefit to the family, but of course, I think we all know staying in our own homes is mentally, socially, and really physically probably the first choice for many of us.

So, really proud of the partnership we have with AARP to provide those extra services and resources to allow people to take on that caregiving role. 

Tricia Sandiego: You all are doing in 211 and in the communities, and you're right, caregivers are not alone. So I hope people recognize that it's not just you by yourself doing this.

Now I would love to hear from both of you on this next question. The AARP Longevity Economy Outlook found that people age 50 plus contributed 745 billion worth of unpaid activities such as volunteering and caregiving across the country. In addition, people age 50 plus made 97 billion dollars in charitable contributions in 2018.

Looking at each of your own work, how would you describe the impact of older adults contributions to local economies? How can we make that immense value more a part of the conversation when we're talking about economic development? Heather, let's turn it over to you first to respond. 

Heather Black: I think especially as we continue as a nation to recover from the pandemic and the accompanying economic downfall from the pandemic, you know, volunteering is really important. Some folks maybe haven't returned to those volunteer activities that they did before the pandemic. And if you haven't, I encourage you to, to do that sooner rather than later. Um, excuse me, a little guest here. So please, please do that sooner rather than later. And, you know, know that there is more being asked of our nonprofit and our community sector now than ever before, and they need your help.

So, make those investments of your time and of your dollars when and where you can. It is really important right now. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks, Heather. Lily, what are your thoughts on this question? 

Lily Hoffman: Yeah, thank you. I mean, I think that certainly in our work, older adults are just really critical to the work that we do, and frankly, to kind of the pulse of communities, whether it be through volunteering or caregiving, or like you said, through philanthropy, which Habitat for Humanity, is so grateful for the contributions that we receive to, in order to do the work that we do.

And I also just want to lift up sort of the informal ways that older adults contribute to economic development also. It can be, you know, at Habitat, we're speaking about the ways in which older adults come and volunteer. But in our communities, there's so much kind of unnoticed labor that older adults do. And that's really critical, I think, to community cohesion and community wellness. 

And lastly, I'll just say that the input of older adults has been really critical to our program's operations. And so, we partner with a wide range of diverse older adults to influence and impact pretty much every stage of the work from program design, to implementation, to evaluation. And the importance of that, I think, cannot be understated. That if we're building programs and our intention is to work in intergenerational communities, that we have to have older adults at the table informing what those programs look like, and ideally, that would be through older adults that work in your organization, through volunteers, um, through community members who want to participate. 

That is also true of Habitat's Older Adult Repair Program. That program was entirely designed by a group of older adults. So, I think that the way that it needs to be talked about in economic development, it also needs to be talked about kind of across sectors. And one way to do that is to really ensure that again, there are older adults present at every stage of the process because we need older adults to be able to, to really do impactful, meaningful work. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks, Lily. I really like that idea of ensuring that the voice of older adults in your community are embedded throughout all the process of different, you know, project development that you do.

I think we have one last question and we're going to do sort of rapid fire response. Throughout this workshop, we want to equip participants with tools, resources, and strategies for getting work done in communities. With that in mind, what should we each be ready to do differently as a result of this panel?

Lily Hoffman: Great question. I think that one thing we can all do differently is look at our circles, whether that be circles of volunteers, circles of who you're hiring or who your co workers are, whether that even be in your own personal life, and, diversify those circles, both in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, abilities, age, and general life experiences, and so, I think that's one of the ways that we can connect, um, and learn about each other and really ensure that our communities are diverse and strong places. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks, Lily. Um, Heather, what is your call to action item? 

Heather Black: Well, it's kind of similar, I guess, piggybacks on what Lily said, and I would say share what you've learned today with your network.

So, I hope you'll spread the word about 211 as a resource that's available nationwide. It is simply dialing that three digit number, and we have over 1.5 million resources and information about community resources. And it's a free call. We're available 24/7, 365, in multi languages. So please share with your circle of friends, your church network, your social network, this information that this is a resource that you learned about that if they need help with something that they can also call 211, and help us strengthen the awareness of 211 as a resource in our communities. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks so much, Heather. I can't reiterate enough the importance of calling that number for those resources that you need in your community.

Well, thanks for sharing your thoughtful insight and expertise with those watching today and those that will watch these recordings in the future. We have Mike back with us to help facilitate the live Q&A. Mike? 

Mike Watson: Well, thanks. And yes, if you haven't yet, please know this is your time to ask your questions of your panel, of our panelists. We have a lot that we're going to get to. So just remember, if you do want to ask a question, please use the Slido Q& A function. You can join by logging into your browser and typing in Slido and enter the event code, which is on the screen, or you can scan the QR code. So as I mentioned, we have a few really great questions in here already, so let's go ahead and jump in.

And one of them is really tied to the way you just ended. Tricia, we've had a few questions around, 211 and specifically, where are the communities that you can call 211? And where is this caregiver outreach program happening? So, Tricia, I'll kick that over to you and you can, share with Heather as well.

Tricia Sandiego: Yeah, I think Heather is the best person to answer this question. 

Heather Black: Sure. So 211 covers 99% of the U.S. and also much of Canada. So you can call 211. In any community, pretty much here in the U. S., and we're working really hard to get 100 percent coverage, but we do have 99%, and every 211 is going to have caregiver resources, all the things that I mentioned earlier, home delivered meals, respite care, supports, things like that.

The special partnership that we have with AARP is in about 40 select markets around the country, but that's just a little bit extra that we can do in those markets. It doesn't mean that you can't still call 211 in one of those select markets. Because like as I said, we do have those resources, so anyone listening today who's interested in getting resources and information about how to utilize community services in your community as a caregiver, please feel free to call 211 or visit 211.org

Mike Watson: Thanks, Tricia. Thanks, Heather. It sounds like, just reiterating that anybody, wherever you are, you can call 211 to get those resources. So we have several other great questions coming in here. 

One of these is around volunteers and identifying as a volunteer and kind of some of the terminology we use. I'm going to go ahead and read it. I have found identifying someone as a volunteer can discount the worth of their efforts they provide. Is there a different term that would be more respected or have either any of you in your work kind of encountered this and how have you helped folks kind of get over that?

Tricia Sandiego: That's a really good question. Lily, do you have any thoughts? 

Lily Hoffman: Yeah, I think it's an excellent question, and a question that, that we should all ask ourselves. You know, it sort of speaks to what I was saying around the informal volunteerism and labor that happens that really keeps our communities going.

And so I agree, I don't think the term encompasses the magnitude of, of kind of the meaning of the work behind it, and it also doesn't capture all of the things that are happening behind the scenes, right, that aren't necessarily recognized by a nonprofit organization as clear this is volunteering, but all of the service that people do in their communities to help others that might not be considered volunteering. So, I don't know who asked the question, but whoever it did, I think it's a great one. And I think those conversations definitely should be continued. 

Heather Black: And I would just add, I've, I've been in public service my entire career, and often volunteers are the heartbeat of organizations. So I also recognize and respect the point made, but I think just know you are appreciated, and often it is without volunteers, many organizations that do a lot of work in communities would not be able to do what they do, so I would just express that you are valued and appreciated, probably beyond what you know and don't feel that you're not.

Mike Watson: I love that message for volunteers. And there's several other questions here. One of them is around how to get the word out about volunteer opportunities. I'm going to go ahead and read it. What are the best ways to get the word out in a community about where volunteers are needed? And how can we make sure folks know their specific skills and experiences are valuable to those opportunities?

Heather Black: You can actually also call 211 to find out about volunteer opportunities. That's one of the options that we give agencies when they list with 211 is if they have donation or volunteer needs, they can add that. So not every agency does that, but we do have that information. And I think it is hard sometimes to find those opportunities. So that is just one additional resource. You could call your local United Way. Many United Ways are the conveners, the collaborating leaders in an organization, and they kind of know the pulse of what's happening in your community. So I would also encourage you to think about reaching out to your local United Way.

Mike Watson: That's a great answer. Lily, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? 

Lily Hoffman: Yeah, I would just add similarly, you could reach out to your local Habitat for Humanity and you may be thinking, I don't have any skill sets in building a house, what can I do for Habitat? A, you don't need construction experience. We have staff and long term volunteers who are equipped to, you through that process. And also there's a wide range of things that Habitat does that is not on a build site. And so we have a real need for volunteers with different sets of skills. So if you're able to reach out to your local Habitat and have that conversation, we really appreciate anybody who's willing to lend their time.

Mike Watson: Great, great examples there. And speaking from experience, I see in the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities across the country, United Ways and Habitats are a kind of heartbeat of a lot of these initiatives, leading work around volunteerism, and also in our Community Challenge grant program, we've had the benefit of supporting many great Habitat for Humanities and many United Ways across the country, leading incredible volunteer driven efforts. So, just want to reinforce and echo that, that commitment for folks to reach out to those organizations to find opportunities. 

Now, our next question here, I'm going to kind of pivot back from volunteerism, back to family caregiving. And one of the questions that we've seen here, and this has been a pretty consistent theme over the past two days of this workshop, is how to think about this in rural areas, and specifically with family caregiving. What are the types of support that are typically available for family caregivers in rural areas and how are rural areas kind of approaching that maybe a little bit differently?

Tricia Sandiego: Mike, I'll chime in here. This is Tricia. I think there's sort of a wide range of different opportunities to reach rural areas. I think we can leverage things like telemedicine and digital virtual sessions to kind of help with that access, although we know on the flip side there's issues with digital access and cable connection and that kind of thing.

Also, I think it really is about looking at the volunteers who are already embedded in the community to see who's available for that help. And I think we referenced one resource, which is a local area agency on aging. I think that is another mechanism for trying to find that care to help fill the gaps that are in these rural communities for caregivers.

Heather, Lily, I didn't know if you had anything else to add. 

Heather Black: It is difficult in rural communities. I definitely would say that is where we have the hardest time, even from a 211 and a United Way perspective. We recognize that often resources are limited. I think that's often where we find, though, that people are the most resourceful and working as a network in their own individual community, I guess you could say, their church, their neighborhood, their family. So I think just recognizing that that is maybe where individuals do step up and, and really take on those roles of, serving in the, in that kind of, as that nurturer in their, in their community.

Mike Watson: Lily, is there anything you wanted to add to that? 

Lily Hoffman: I don't think so. I mean, I would just echo, we work closely with our area agencies on aging across the country, and they're an amazing resource, but I think my colleagues said it well. 

Mike Watson: Very well said. So one of the areas we were just talking about volunteerism and reaching them and there's been several questions in here. I'm going to break them into two questions, to give us some specific focus here. One is around older adults specifically. We've talked a little bit about the power of older adults as a volunteer resource, but what are some ways that, um, that you're kind of seeing? Organizations directly reaching, recruiting, and engaging older adults specifically.

Lily Hoffman: I can respond to that. So, I mean, Habitat relies heavily on older adult volunteers to do the work that we do across the nation. Like I said, the range of services that older adults provide for Habitat is really quite wide and significant. We also have an older adult repair program which provides home repairs for older adults so they are able to age in their homes and that their homes are safe and accessible, and in many cases, we continue our relationship with those individuals even past the repairs, whether that be through volunteering or connecting those families to our partner organizations, like Area Agency on Aging. 

As I mentioned, we have lots of engagement with older adult community members through our designing, as I mentioned, and building out of programming. So really critical to the work that we do, I would say. 

Mike Watson: That's great. Lily, um, Heather, did you have anything you wanted to add to that, or Tricia as well? 

Heather Black: I would just add like Lily said earlier, I think, you know, our older adults are such an important part of our communities. They do have such valuable skills. And again, I do think since the pandemic, rightfully so, folks stayed home and stayed healthy. But, you know, to the extent that you feel you can, get back out there and get engaged and get involved because we need you. Our communities need you and our non-profits need you and you have very valuable skills that, that we would welcome back into the, the local sector.

Tricia Sandiego: Mike, I just wanted to add that, you know, building on the skills, the wisdom, the experience that older adults have, it's a vast array and a wealth of knowledge and I think creating leadership type positions in volunteer roles like volunteer advisory councils where they can really provide that input that Lily referenced earlier in the panel at sort of every stage to kind of leverage that wisdom and that knowledge that they have.

Mike Watson: I mentioned this was kind of a two part question, so I'll get to the second part now, which is on a similar topic. We've had a couple questions in here around ensuring volunteer options are inclusive. So how do we ensure that we're making volunteer options that are inclusive and are attracting people from different backgrounds, walks of life, income levels, and more?

Lily Hoffman: I can respond to that. I just want to thank whoever asked this question. I think this is such an important question and something that's really, really deeply important to Habitat. And we are privileged to work with volunteers from all walks of life and experiences. And one of the amazing things that happens, I think, at a Habitat build site is that you have such a diverse mix of people who come together. 

Understanding, kind of, that the pulse of this is in service of creating more affordable housing. And, like I also mentioned we have a wide range of, of services that Habitat provides in a wide range of places. And so, everybody may not be interested in a particular opportunity or a particular space, but there's over a thousand local affiliates across the country.

We also have an entire department at Habitat called Beloved Communities that focuses exclusively on ensuring that there is diversity in volunteering and that there's support for people to ensure that they feel welcome and safe in that experience. 

Heather Black: And I would just add from a 211 and United Way perspective, we also are very committed to inclusion in all of our work. We want our communities to reflect the diversity of them, and we want the work that we do to reflect that diversity. So we fully also embrace that. From a 211 perspective, every 211 has inclusion and exclusion criteria, and we do not include any agencies that would not be embracing of all of the diversity of our communities. So hopefully that is welcoming to everyone, and we, we too would encourage that. 

Mike Watson: Yeah, I think that's important. So we have time for one final question. It's a round of kind of measuring the value here, right? We heard some numbers cited and different pieces of presentation, different videos, but how do y'all think about the value of volunteerism and is there a way that you can measure it and other organizations who are listening today that they could think about measuring it? Tricia, I'll kick it to you and then maybe kick it to Lily and Heather for some additional insights. 

Tricia Sandiego: Thanks, Mike. That's a really tough question because I almost want to say that it's immeasurable the value, the true value of what volunteers can contribute to the community and to help people like caregivers themselves and their care recipients and older adults.

I think it's a challenging thing. I think dollars is one way to calculate. We talked about hours, the sort of labor, but then there's all this sort of knowledge that may not necessarily be sort of quantifiable in many ways. I think one way to measure is just sort of feedback from what their contributions are doing in the community, the impact, the people who are receiving their help, what is the feedback that we receive in the community from that, and I think that will really speak volumes to the immense value that I think is almost immeasurable in lots of ways, but look to Lily and Heather to see if you have a better answer to quantify.

Heather Black: I don't know that it's better. I think the immediate thing you think of is, you know, hours worked, number of volunteers engaged, but I think you also have to think of the impact, and I almost look at it from the counter. How many people would not have received a meal had we not had these volunteers? How many houses would not have been built had we not had the volunteer capacity that Habitat has? How many school gardens wouldn't have been put in? Things like that, that are so critical to improving our communities and improving lives. So, I look at it that way and I think it is, again, like you said, immeasurable, the value of volunteers and what they do.

And I also think of the word of mouth of volunteers. You have a good experience with a non-profit or an agency in your community and then you start telling your friends. And then maybe you meet someone who's having a hard time and they need the services of that agency and you can speak to it from a place of trust because they trust you.

So I just think there's so many ways you could value, you could measure the value and the impact of volunteers. 

Mike Watson: Love both those answers. Lily, I think you're going to get the last word on this topic. 

Lily Hoffman: Well, my last word is just to say that I agree with what was said. I think it's really, you, you can't possibly measure the impact and the worth of people volunteering. And again, not only when they're in that engagement, but then the stories that they learn and then the stories that they tell after that. That’s really, I think, invaluable to spreading the word about advocacy and about what is important. So, thank you. 

Mike Watson: Well, thank you. Thank you, Tricia, Lily, and Heather for taking the time to join us today and really diving in on that important topic of valuing things that are immeasurable and also at times maybe not be, are not valued in the way that we should in our society. So thank you again so much for being here to hit on those topics. 

Mike Watson: So with that, it's time for us to wrap up this workshop. This has been a really incredible two days, and I want to thank all of you for joining us and engaging so much. And before we close, we want to kind of stretch out your engagement just a little bit more, and we want to hear from you once more in Slido. You can either go to Slido in your browser and enter that event code. Or just scan the QR code on the screen. Hopefully everybody's got that down pat now. 

So first, please go on there and tell us on a scale of one to five. Did you get any new ideas, resources, or solutions to take back to your community from today's programming? Again, that's on a scale of one to five. And if you were here yesterday, you know that five is kind of an enthusiastic, definitely double thumbs up. And one is kind of one of those, maybe you're shrugging, like, meh, it was okay, not so much. So hoping that folks will kind of take some time, report in, tell us, tell us what you found valuable in that program.

And then we have one last question for you. Please, once you've done that, please go into Slido and tell us an idea or solution from the workshop that you're planning on carrying with you moving forward. We want to hear what was most meaningful for you and what you're going to take back to your community. So again, while you're in there on Slido, let us know an idea or solution that you heard about in this workshop that you'll be carrying with you moving forward. 

Some of the things that kind of stood out to me over the last two days from kind of a thematic standpoint are a few topics. I was able to jot down a few here.

First, Ilana Preuss told us today that we're kind of reinforced this important and special moment we're at when we can't, when we have an opportunity to think about our economic development moving forward, given everything that we've been through. Yesterday, we also heard about the importance of inclusion, engaging residents at the forefront and during and throughout as we're pursuing new economic development projects.

We also heard about the importance of creating public spaces. That are accessible, available to all, and are designed to allow people's local economic work thrive as well. 

Finally, we also heard about the importance of empowering people with skill-based training and working with employers to also value those skills.

And I also want to just touch on the final piece, which I thought was really meaningful to me is reflecting on the value of unpaid contributions and unpaid efforts in the community that drives so much work of nonprofits, drives the work of local governments and empowers people and supports people and everything that they're doing.

So those are some of the things that stood out to me. Carly, what stood out to you over the last few days? 

Carly Roszkowski: Sure, I thought the small scale manufacturing conversation about the impact they're making on communities and how their multiple streams of revenue can be both impactful to their lives and building a business as well as to the local communities.

I also thought the conversation around older workers and the value of an age diverse. And multi-generational workforce can impact productivity and innovation, creativity, and the bottom line. Uh, it was truly an important theme throughout the two days. 

Mike Watson: Those are great, great pieces to add into that, and really, I think, came through in today's programming. So with that, we're kind of moving to close, and I encourage you all to visit aarp.org/livable. to see some of the resources that were referenced throughout the workshop. 

Please also take a moment to sign up for our free weekly Livable Communities e-Newsletter by texting LIVABLE to 50757. That'll ensure that you're receiving the latest news from AARP on resources, strategies, and solutions to help create more livable communities and as we learned today, more vibrant economies when you do that. This e-Newsletter is also where you can receive news about the posting of our workshop recordings to our website, and if you'd like to revisit any of the content after the program. 

I would also like to do a quick shout out to all of our wonderful speakers as well as to the planning committee and staff who made this event possible. I'd like to thank our wonderful moderators from throughout the two days of programming from across the country here in studio with us and joining us virtually as well. 

And special recognition to our incredible team here in the AARP studio: Nicolas Gouffray, Valerie Murray, Karen Ryan, Steve Bartlett, Julio Gonzalez, George Kolotov, Bobby Lloyd, Mary Manby, Tom Houston, and Andy Portnoy. We cannot do a production like this without the incredible work and efforts of this team. So I'm really, really appreciative of everything that went into this.

And I also want to thank my colleagues on the AARP Livable Communities team who developed this program for our two days here and made everything possible. You should see their names up on the screen. Really, really proud of the contributions of this team, and I want to give a special shout out to Rebecca Delphia and Sam Kanach for leading the overall development and execution of this workshop, as well as the many other names you see on the screen for their incredible contributions.

Now, Carly, I also want to thank you for your partnership today. It was wonderful to do this program with you, and I'm really looking forward to the next opportunity. It was just such a, such a joy. So, and again, Coralette Hannon who joined us yesterday and emceed the program. So with that, Carly, we'd love to kick it over to you.

Carly Roszkowski: Yeah, thank you so much, Mike, and many thanks to everyone who made this possible. Thanks to all of you for tuning in, and we're not quite done yet, so for those of you who are interested, please join us for the discussion groups. Starting shortly at 4 p.m. Eastern time. And these small group, open and dynamic conversations are led by workshop participants and expert practitioners on critical economic development related topics. They will go deep on some of the most important economic issues facing communities today. And due to some unforeseen technical difficulties, we are aware that some folks had trouble logging into those discussion groups yesterday, and we apologize to those who were not able to join and have since identified and fixed that issue. So we hope you decide to attend one of our exciting discussion groups that will kick off in just a few moments. 

Again, thank you so much for being a part of the 2023 AARP Livable Communities Workshop: Economic Development - Connecting to Opportunity. We hope you learned a lot from these last two days, got some ideas to take back to your community and have a greater sense of the ways that we can work together to better meet the economic development needs of a changing America. Thank you.

Mike Watson: Yes, thank you. And we look forward to seeing you again soon.