Shownotes
The federal Older Americans Act mandates and governs much of the work of Area Agencies on Aging in the U.S. One of the requirements is that each State Unit on Aging must produce a state plan.
Ohio’s 12 Area Agencies on Aging develop their required strategic area plans every four years, which then coordinate with and inform the Ohio Department of Aging’s state plan on aging. Tamara James, Director of Strategic Initiatives at COAAA, shares the timelines, objectives, and requirements of our Area Plan, which in turn prioritizes our work across the region.
Let me know what you think of this podcast, as well as any ideas you have for an episode. Email me at kwhite@coaaa.org!
Copyright 2024 Central Ohio Area Agency On Aging
Transcripts
Welcome to Pretend I Know Nothing About. I'm Katie White, your host, administrator of COAAA. On this episode, we hear from Tamara James, Director of Strategic Initiatives, about her work on our strategic area plan. Let's get into it. All right, so welcome to the podcast, Tamara.
Tamara James [:Hello.
Katie White [:Hello. Can you start off by telling us your title and a little bit about your role?
Tamara James [:My title is Director of Strategic Initiatives, and my role is to manage our communications team and our brand presence in the community. It's also to monitor and develop our strategic area plan for the Department of Aging, the Ohio Department of Aging. And that is an ongoing process, but really heats up every four years as we develop a new plan.
Katie White [:Okay, so before we get all the way into the plan, which I think is riveting, tell us a little bit about your career path. I feel like that's always a fun piece for people to hear about.
Tamara James [:I was a late bloomer in terms of my professional career. I graduated from college when I was 30, and really since then, I've been in a helping profession. So I first started doing job placement for people with disabilities, and then I entered into the Aging network. I spent 16 years at the state office of AARP, Ohio, and really worked on member and community outreach, helping to connect people to services and information that helped them navigate getting older, navigate advocacy for themselves and for older adults. And then I've been here at COA for almost six years.
Katie White [:That's great. And if people don't know Tamara or haven't had a chance to work with her yet, I encourage you to stop by Tamara's. Very funny. You know, I love also, I mean, what you know and what you've done brings so much to the team. And you might laugh at this, but your ability to be honest in all situations is such a value. And I know we always kind of laugh about it, but for real, there's a need for that. And so I just so appreciate getting to work with you.
Tamara James [:Right. Well, Katie and I have worked together since the Age friendly initiative here in Columbus when I was interim state director at AARP, Ohio, and we have pictures together before we really got a chance to work together really deeply. So we go way back.
Katie White [:Maybe that's why I like you so much, because you said yes to the age friendly work, and that really defined a lot of my career. Absolutely never thought about that. Okay, well okay, again, so you do a number of different things all around the agency, but for today's episode, we are going to focus on the area plan. So kind of give us the background. What is it? Why do we do it?
Tamara James [: is period run from January of: Tamara James [:Older individuals who have the greatest economic need, individuals who are from diverse backgrounds, individuals who have limited English proficiency, as well as individuals living in rural areas. So here in our region, we have Franklin County on the one end of the spectrum, which is very metropolitan, and then we have Fayette County, which is very rural. And I think they told me 90% of their county is still farmland. So it's quite a range that we serve here in our region.
Katie White [:And so every area agency on Aging in the US. Does their version of an Area Plan, is that right?
Tamara James [:Yes. Some states might have a two year or a three year cycle. In Ohio, we have a four year cycle. And every county in the US. Is served by an area Agency on Aging. So there are 622 Area Agencies on Aging or AAAS, and they're all writing their Area Plans at some point or another.
Katie White [:Okay. And then in Ohio, every Area Agency on Aging is doing them every four years.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:They probably all look very different, which is the point of it. Right. So that it actually is reflective of the community you're serving.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:And then that four year plan gets fed up into ODA, right? Do they prove it? Do they certify they what do they do with it?
Tamara James [: e conducted, we started it in: Tamara James [:Even though they don't have a crystal ball, and everybody thinks they're going to drive forever, and everybody thinks they're going to have access to transportation forever, but the reality isn't necessarily the same as our perceptions. And so the area plan helps us identify those intended gaps or those expected gaps in services so that we can get either address the current needs or get ahead of the future needs.
Katie White [:Okay, and so in addition to the survey, are there focus groups or listening sessions?
Tamara James [:We did, we did focus groups right in the depths of COVID But the good news was that it's the unintended consequence. It's a silver lining. We were able to do them in all eight counties. We did one in person and one on Zoom. We did them virtually. So that really extended our ability to hear input from focus group participants. So we had people on Zoom telling us their thoughts and experiences. And really those individuals who live in the county are the experts about what's happening in their county.
Tamara James [:We aren't as knowledgeable about what's happening in Fayette County as somebody who lives there. And so that was really helpful for us to be able to know what's happening on the ground, what the situation is, and how it's different across all eight counties.
Katie White [:Yeah, and that community engagement is so important because like you said, we can kind of have our assumptions about what people might want and need, but it truly is important to make sure that we're gathering that, whether through a survey or through these listening sessions and focus groups, to make sure our plan reflects the true need. Right, so, okay, it's written for a four year period, and then there's an annual update, which you are in the thick of or done with.
Tamara James [:Yes, the annual update happens usually kind of quarter three. It's usually due at the end of October. And so we are in the home stretch here on our area plan updates for this current year. So the area plan consists of both our listed objectives and then updates against those objectives. Any outcomes, any adjustments. We can add objectives, we can delete objectives. If something that we had planned to do is suddenly provided by a new agency or is not no longer an issue, we can take objectives off. And then we also have new budgets that we create for every new year.
Tamara James [:And then we also have public hearing. And that is our opportunity to present and request approval and comments for the funding that we are proposing that we retain to provide services. So traditionally we've had a few areas where we retain funding so that we can effectively and efficiently provide services. And that public hearing has very strict guidance around what we have to do to prepare, what we have to do to report. And so we did that earlier in September and so we are in good shape with the public hearing and the outcome of that. So we are close to done.
Katie White [:You're killing it. And there's a lot of people involved across the agency in the various objectives in the plan. And so you have the lovely task of sort of harnessing all of the feedback and updates and giving us a tight timeline and sending us reminders. And I'm speaking from my own place, still missing the deadline, my apologies. So, yeah, there is this annual piece around, I guess, providing us the flexibility to change based on what's going on, which is nice, right? But then also to show our progress on the things that are in the plan, right?
Tamara James [:I'm that person that nobody wants to see coming at them during area plan update period because they know I'm going to ask them like where's your update? When is it coming? What do you need from me? What do you need me to tell you? So we do have a lot of people involved in our updates and in our area plan. We have our fiscal team and we have updates from our funded partners about their waiting lists or whether they have a waiting list and what their proposed solution is to serving people on the waiting lists. We have staff leads for every objective so that we don't have objectives with no home or no owner. Our education and outreach team is very involved in the updates, whether it's Medicare, education or caregiving services and support, it's our volunteer guardian program team and a volunteer and engagement person. It's our housing team. Communications has a role. We report on our activities, whether it's social media or direct mail or outreach to other partners. We report on that in our area plan as well.
Tamara James [:And so there's lots and lots of people involved. Our leadership team is included in developing new programs and new services and reporting on the progress for those.
Katie White [:So then it doesn't include anything we do in case management.
Tamara James [:It really doesn't. These are title Three programs which is the funding area of the Older Americans Act. And so those are very specifically targeted to some areas of the title that are specific to transportation or evidence based programming which is kind of healthy aging and chronic disease management, falls prevention, things like that. Caregiving services, supportive Services, which is a large category of things like Meals on Wheels and Senior Farmers Market nutrition program. Okay, so our traditional Older Americans Act programs, which is only a small part of what area agency do overall anymore.
Katie White [:And so our Title Three funds are also designated in the federal Older Americans Act. So Title Three funds as well as the Area Plan, and they're supposed to really kind of speak to each other and support each other, right? So, like, what's in the Area Plan, as needs should in theory also be supported by the Title Three funds that we either waiver and keep internally or do an RFP and grant out to other organizations, right?
Tamara James [:So every four years and we just went through this process, we have a request for proposals and providers, potential providers, submit their applications for funding and those should really align with the areas that we've identified as current or future needs for supporting older adults in our region. So, for instance, transportation is always a need. So new transportation providers, increased transportation is always one of the things that we're looking at, although budget is finite. So even though transportation needs could sometimes feel infinite.
Katie White [:Okay, so the Title Three is also a four year process, but it's not the same four year process, right, because we're in Year Two of the Area Plan, whereas we're getting ready to embark on Year One of the Title Three funds.
Tamara James [:Right. We've talked about and tried to align the whole process. It's so complicated because it is a four year funding contract, but we don't get the budget allocation necessarily. It's kind of off cycle and so we're a little bit ahead of or behind, depending on where you're looking at it. The interesting thing is, because of how we are structured, it's a four year contract for Title Three funds, but it's a one year contract for the funding. So every year we have to have new contracts to allocate funding. And that means every year we have to also do a new public hearing. So if we had the ability to write four year contracts and do four year funding, we would only have to do one public hearing every four years.
Tamara James [:But it's pretty turnkey. It's just kind of getting for me, it's getting everything organized and then being able to present it on Zoom, which means we have more participants, which is in some ways better, because it doesn't feel like talking to an empty room, because it's not right.
Katie White [:Because people are there, right, and they.
Tamara James [:Have questions, and they want to look at the documents before the hearing. And so we have more people engaged because we're able to do it virtually.
Katie White [:So we'll have another episode on the whole Title Three process, but for those listening, if it feels a little complicated, it's because it is, right? So we've got these different timelines and these different contract lengths and when they're coming in and how they're going out. So it's kind of a lot. And it took me probably, and I'm still learning, but it took me the better portion of my first year to really feel like I even had a handle on some of this.
Tamara James [:Right?
Katie White [:Yeah, right. It's like they're both moving targets and they're moving in different directions.
Tamara James [:Yeah. Yes. And the Older Americans Act is it's been around for 50 years now, and it's the legacy of area agencies, but it's also kind of the tradition, but we're still evolving and innovating. And so there's a little bit of tension between where we've been, where we still are, and where we need to go and how we can fit that into the Title Three process and into the Older Americans Act process, knowing that it is a big part of us, but it's not all of us.
Katie White [:Yeah, that's so well said. It makes me think about how so much of what we're doing in the area plan and our Title Three funding also then ties into our advocacy. So you said earlier the money is finite. And not only is the money finite, but the way that we can spend the money is pretty restricted. So then obviously our plan is going to reflect how we know our funds can be spent while also balancing what we know our needs are in the community.
Tamara James [:Right. One of the really I think relevant to us and probably to listeners is we can't use Title Three funds on Uber or Lyft for transportation because the individuals who are driving aren't trained for helping older adults with their transportation needs. But sometimes that's all someone needs to be able to get to an appointment is a ride that they can do on demand. But we can't fund that through Title Three funds.
Katie White [:Right. And I think part of what I'm learning, just finishing up my first true Title Three RFP process, is while it's really difficult to make these decisions, even as a team and operationalizing our scoring process, the unmet need then becomes that really necessary data to use for advocacy.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:And we're in the middle of an Older Americans Act reauthorization and update. Right. There's just a lot of moving parts right now in this area.
Tamara James [:Right. We have 400 people on staff here at COA, and that is probably even if we all did nothing but advocacy all the time, we still wouldn't necessarily be able to move the needle as far and as fast as we want to. We have our biannual state budget process, which gives us an opportunity to advocate for funding and services and changes. And then, as you mentioned, the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, which also gives us the chance to modernize and advocate for changes, but it doesn't happen as fast or as effectively as we'd like.
Katie White [:Yeah. Despite our darndest, at least we know the parts and pieces we can control are really well done and are consumer focused and are reflective of what's going on in Central Ohio. So our current plan, what are some of the objectives in it or some of the focus areas? Just kind of talk about some of that.
Tamara James [: I did when I started here in: Tamara James [:And so all of that financial stability work really will have a good impact on the individuals we're working with in our eight counties.
Katie White [: ur year plan or that's in our: Tamara James [:That's new in our four year plan.
Katie White [:Okay. Got it. Right, got it. And we did make some new service specifications by looking at what some other area agencies on aging are doing to try to encourage more applications around some of that financial stability.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:So that one's new. What's something that has been in so many previous plans and still continues to be a challenge?
Tamara James [:Oh, transportation.
Katie White [:Always. Right.
Tamara James [:It's more transportation. It's more providers of transportation. One of the things that I heard the first time around that I didn't hear as much of this time around was the need for bariatric transportation. So interesting, individuals who have a higher weight who need to be transported, whether it's emergency or medical or non medical transportation, this time around, it really was housing. So housing, people have housing. They can maintain it, but maybe they can't get up and down the stairs as easily as possible. And they want to downsize, but there's no place to downsize, too. They can't find affordable housing.
Tamara James [:They can't find housing that they can sustain over time. So housing was a big topic. As a matter of fact, I think it was more of a topic this time around in focus groups especially than transportation even.
Katie White [:Yeah, that housing stability is just key in everything that we do, whether it's our programming side, which we're focusing on today, or our case management side, or our advocacy or our funding. I mean, it's housing, housing, housing in central Ohio.
Tamara James [:And everybody, we think here in central Ohio, we think Franklin County, columbus is growing, but it's Delaware County, it's Union County up in Marysville, it's Licking County.
Katie White [:Yeah, that's coming on huge.
Tamara James [:Yeah.
Katie White [:Okay, so then do you have a favorite issue area or objective or more than one favorite?
Tamara James [:I have to say, this time around, we are really focused on how communications can support the work that we need to do. We added a new person to the team last year. Our team is working really cohesively and we have campaign leads assigned to all of the work that we're doing so that somebody is we have Malika who's working with the caregiving team and she is helping them identify opportunities to tell the story, to get the information out, to get the resources highlighted. So I feel like our communications team is working so much more cohesively with our partners, our staff partners, to be able to really amplify what we do, what we can do, if we can't do it, who can, and to help keep people independent and living at home where they want to be.
Katie White [:When I think about four years of a plan and the pandemic hitting right, did that just totally blow up the last plan? I mean, how much shifting and changing and updating did you have to do in there?
Tamara James [:That's a good question. It did and it didn't. Because we still are having consumers and individuals using transportation to get to medical appointments. We still area having people taking evidence based workshops. Those were able to shift to virtual delivery. Transportation is still transportation, but we also were able to add with Cares Act funding and with area funding, american Rescue Plan Act funding, we were able to add personal protective equipment such as masks and hand sanitizers so that even though people were still engaging with others, we were helping to keep them safe. Case managers were doing more phone and virtual visits, no home visits, but they were still happening. So Title Three still carried on caregiving, support was still happening, meals on Wheels was still happening, those kinds of things still happened.
Tamara James [:We had to just make the adjustments like everyone and continue to provide the services in a safe manner.
Katie White [:And they loosened some of the restrictions too, which was nice until now they're tightening them all back up and that's never that great to tighten the reins. But I feel like in the essence of meeting this crisis, or once in a lifetime, hopefully situation, it was nice to kind of see how some of those restrictions were loosened to make of.
Tamara James [:The one of the big innovations from my perspective during COVID was the ability for meal providers to do grab and go meals. So yes, we want people to attend congregate and community meal sites so that they have that socialization, but sometimes you just want to go home and eat by yourself and have some quiet time. And so having the ability for individuals receiving meal services to go and do a grab and go at the meal site or at a local restaurant, it's really to me a real innovation that was welcome.
Katie White [:I totally agree. And are you able to explain a little bit more about the restaurant?
Tamara James [:I know a little bit. Instead of having a meal provider or Meals on Wheels provider from a centralized industrial kitchen. Local restaurants, especially those who can provide culturally appropriate meals, were able to be included as a meal provider. So, for instance, here in Franklin County, Life Care Alliance has partnerships with local restaurants and they are almost like subcontractors and provide whether it's meals for individuals with Somali background or Nepali or some other cultural kosher. Yeah. So they're able to provide those connections for people to get meals that are more familiar to them.
Katie White [:Yeah. And that's such a spot on insight, Tamara. I had our monthly four A meeting where the AAA directors from Ohio get together for a monthly meeting and top of mind and topic. Try that one again. Dippity top. And one of the topics we spent the most amount of time on was the ending of the public health emergency, the Pag, and how they were going to have to discontinue the grab and go meals because it became so popular. And to your point, it wasn't like people completely stopped congregating or going to congregate dining, but every once in a while you just might not want to go hang out with people, or maybe you're not feeling well and you want to spread your germs, but you still want your meal. And so a lot of people are trying to figure out from the other AAA's what types of funds or how might they be able to continue having this option that was so well.
Tamara James [:Right, right. And I really think that that is my perception is that that's part of the older Americans Act, that the value is on home delivered meals and congregate meals, but someone who is not. It's also consumer choice. If I am not somebody who likes to spend time with other people, if I'm an introvert and I don't value engaging with others, a grab and go meal may be my preference. And so that's where the ability for those reauthorization and changes to the Older Americans Act really come into play because things evolve. And if we're really committing to consumer choice, then we should give consumers that choice as well.
Katie White [:Absolutely. And we spent a lot of time having so Linda Gillespie was heavily involved in some of the reauthorization updates that we wanted to see here. There were statewide efforts, but we did a lot of advocacy when they were collecting comments around what some of those updates should be. And I definitely remember putting that one in there.
Tamara James [:Right. Just because a person is over 60 doesn't mean that their personality is going to fundamentally change from I'm a people person and now I'm going to stay at home and get a home delivered meal. Or I am someone who likes solitude and I'm going to have to go to a congregate meal site and sit with people I don't want to sit with. Then it shouldn't be like high school.
Katie White [:Right, well, and I mean, when the Pandemic happened, the first groups to be, quote unquote, mandated to be shut in were older adults. And so are we really that surprised that all of a sudden people aren't flocking to each other in these rooms when we kind of socialized everyone to fear groups?
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:So we're not going to swing that pendulum back all the way quickly.
Tamara James [:It was such a split between people who were like, finally, I can stay home without shame. And then the other part of the people were the other half were, we don't care. Open the senior center. We want to hang out and have fun and play pool and bingo and crafts and cards and all that kind of stuff. Neither was right, and neither was wrong.
Katie White [:But the choice is the important part. You should be able to choose which one you want at what point in time. Yeah. Okay, so to summarize, the federal Older Americans Act, which is 50 years old, mandates that states have a state plan on aging. Ours is the Ohio Department of Aging, and for their state plan, they have every area agency on aging do a strategic area plan every four years.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:And that plan is tied to or should nod to the Title Three funding that also comes out every four years.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:But every year we get the chance to do a strategic area plan update, which includes changing objectives, but also we state what funds we want to keep as an area agency and administer ourselves.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:And then the rest of those funds go out per a formula to the rest of our counties to meet the needs of our strategic area plan.
Tamara James [:Right. And this time around, we updated our formula because we have new census figures.
Katie White [:Doing that, by the way.
Tamara James [:Yeah. Some counties are growing, some are shrinking. It helps us also, I think we have not only just population, but low income population and low income minority population as part of our formula so that we really can keep it standardized. It's not based on a whim.
Katie White [:Yes. Plugging in the census data into the formula. Includes percentage of 60 plus.
Tamara James [:Right.
Katie White [:Percentage, low income, percentage, minority.
Tamara James [:It could be minority. It could be low income minority. Low income minority. Okay. I'm not quite sure since we don't adjust it very often. It's kind of one of those things you set it's, one and done.
Katie White [:Forget it.
Tamara James [:Set it and forget.
Katie White [:So, okay, we're coming to a close here, and I like to always ask a couple of fun questions. So if there was one thing about coaaa that you would change or improve or something fun that you would add, what would it be?
Tamara James [:That's a tough one.
Katie White [:We've heard everything from, like, a garden in the back to cat rooms to nap rooms.
Tamara James [:All right. It would be fun to be able to bring our dogs to work.
Katie White [:It would be fun.
Tamara James [: . Even here? Yes, until about: Katie White [:Yeah, but see, I would love that because I'd be like, oh, can I take her for a walk for you? Yes, that would be fun. We have our wellness lab where some therapy dogs come in, and it really just does bring the joy out of you. I don't have a dog. I have cats, which I love so much, but I don't know. Yeah, that would be a good one.
Tamara James [:I don't have little kids, but an onsite daycare would be such a quality of life thing.
Katie White [:That would be huge. I've heard that one from many moving.
Tamara James [:Parts and so much to work. But it would have a big impact.
Katie White [:It would have a huge impact. Yeah. So then my final prompt is, what else do you want people to know about the strategic area plan? Or you kind of some closing thoughts.
Tamara James [:Right. It probably does feel like there are times when that's the only thing I talk about. It's like I get up in front of an all staff meeting and they're like, she goes again. The interesting thing is our strategic area plan is a lot like a grant. It's like grant reporting, it's like grant writing, it's grant budget development. It's very similar in terms of transferable skills. So to me, it sounds like it could be kind of dry and boring. And I imagine for people who aren't into grant writing and grant reporting, it is.
Tamara James [:But it really is dynamic and impactful because it also gives us a chance to really take a minute, look at what we're doing, look at where we need to go, and really plan our work so that we get there.
Katie White [:Yeah. It sets the foundation and direction for where we need to be going.
Tamara James [:Right. And I try to do a mid year update and, like, don't forget about this. It's coming whether you want it to.
Katie White [:It never goes away. Just sort of exists in the background, keeping us on track.
Tamara James [:The future is coming.
Katie White [:Well, thank you so much for being here today and for all of your work on this. I appreciate it.
Tamara James [:Yeah, thank you.
Katie White [:I hope now you know something about the strategic area plan.
