Section 3. Introduction
Section 3. Introduction
In January 2021, the State of California released its Master Plan for Aging. The Master Plan is a response to a significant demographic shift across the state. In 2030, California will be home to 10.8 million people aged 60 and over — twice as many as in 2010. One out of every four Californians will be an older adult.
This same shift is taking place in Merced County. In 2030, Merced County will have 4,622 more older adults than it does now. By 2060, it will have 32,010 more. To prepare, the Area Agency on Aging recommended that Merced County join the AARP Age-Friendly Network of States and Communities. Merced County joined the network in September 2024.
Per AARP guidelines, members of the Age-Friendly Network must first conduct a community assessment to understand the unique strengths and needs of older adults and people with disabilities in their community. Once the assessment is complete, an action plan is developed based on the assessment results. Lastly, member communities work towards the goals of the action plan, continuously sharing successes and learning from challenges along the way.
In Merced County, the assessment consisted of 226 responses to the Community Assessment Survey for Older Adults (CASOA®) conducted by Polco in 2023 and nine (9) aging and disability focus groups conducted by Pear Street Consulting in early 2025. The survey served as a learning opportunity that informed how the planning team gathered data through the focus groups. The focus groups helped identify the tangible solutions prioritized by a majority of residents for inclusion in the plan. Those data became the basis for this Local Aging and Disability-Friendly Action Plan.
As the Age-Friendly Merced County initiative moves forward, the Area Agency on Aging will evaluate the impact of its efforts. The Area Agency on Aging will provide semi annual updates to its partners and residents, and every five years, the County will repeat the process by developing new goals once previous ones have been completed. By continuously seeking improvements, Merced County will become more age- and disability-friendly over time.
The Merced County Aging & Disability-Friendly Action Plan is founded on a framework for designing age and disability-friendly communities through policies that support adult independence, interdependence, and well-being. This framework views individuals, families, and communities as part of a larger, interconnected ecosystem. Therefore, the well-being of people with disabilities and older adults co-exists with the health and dynamics of the broader environment, including natural ecosystems, economic and social systems, and the built environment. By creating communities where people adapt the environment to better meet their needs, Merced County will achieve better outcomes in aging.
Merced County utilizes two established models to achieve its outcomes. The first model is from the World Health Organization and the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. Coined “The Eight Domains of Livability,” this model identifies the eight core characteristics of an age and disability-friendly community, and is used by many other towns, cities, counties and states to organize and prioritize their work to become more livable for people of all ages and abilities. While some communities tackle all eight domains at once, others choose to focus on a few targeted domains. See page 9 for more details.
The second model is the California Master Plan for Aging (MPA). The MPA outlines five bold goals and twenty-three strategies to build a California for all ages by 2030. It is a blueprint for state government, local government, the private sector, and philanthropy to prepare the state for the coming demographic changes and continue California’s leadership in aging, disability, and equity. By aligning with the MPA, Merced County benefits from shared language, approaches, and resources to bolster its age- and disability-friendly efforts. See page 7 for more details.
While framed within the context of these two models, the recommendations in this Action Plan are ultimately community driven. There is a clear methodological through-line between what the majority of residents need or want and what implementers of the plan will focus on over the next five years.
To support the development of its first-ever Age & Disability-Friendly Action Plan, Merced County’s Human Services Agency and Area Agency on Aging awarded a contract to Pear Street Consulting, a Bay Area firm specializing in public sector strategic planning projects. The contract was funded by a one-time planning grant from the California Department of Aging.
Pear Street began its community-driven approach to developing the Action Plan in November 2024 with a thorough discovery of the unique social, economic and public health context for older adults and people with disabilities in Merced County. The planning team started by reviewing existing local government plans, notably the Area Agency on Aging’s Area Plan.
The planning team also reviewed the results of the Community Assessment Survey for Older Adults (CASOA®) released in November 2023. The survey findings formed the basis of the team’s understanding of the current strengths and needs of older adults in Merced County, and allowed them to focus their community engagement efforts on developing and prioritizing tangible solutions. See page 42 for more details.
Between late January and mid March 2025, Pear Street, with outreach and staffing support from Cultiva Central Valley, conducted nine (9) focus groups in the major urban centers across Merced County, engaging 308 residents. The planning team prioritized a geographic lens in its community engagement after recognizing the unique, close-knit and oftentimes isolated nature of many Merced County communities.
In addition to collecting the qualitative and quantitative data that would become the basis for this Action Plan, the planning team designed the focus groups as a way to listen to the personal experiences of a broad and diverse set of residents, especially individuals not typically engaged in local policy making; to build or strengthen relationships between residents, local government officials, and other organizational partners; to engender trust and mutual ownership in the goals and implementation of the plan; and to sow the seeds for ongoing collaboration and meaning-making as specific projects and policies are implemented, evaluated, and revised. See page 49 for more details about the focus groups.
Merced County’s Local Aging & Disability-Friendly Action Plan (LADAP) Advisory Committee is in the process of drafting and finalizing Mission and Vision Statements for inclusion in the final version of the action plan. For now, this section is a placeholder.
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