To empower communities to lead meaningful change for older adults, The SCAN Foundation has commissioned the Community-Led Change for Older Adults: A Toolkit for Community Organizing. Designed for community-based organizations interested in building Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Groups, this toolkit provides practical guidance for bringing together older adults from historically marginalized communities to identify challenges, co-design solutions, and advance health equity.
Developed with valuable input from ECO Group members and staff, the toolkit captures lessons learned from the ECO Group experience and walks organizations through each stage of the community organizing journey — from recruiting members and building trust to taking action and sustaining long-term impact.
What’s Inside?
The toolkit includes step-by-step guidance, tools, and worksheets to help organizations put community organizing principles into practice:
- Step 1 – Understanding your purpose: define your goals and establish the foundation for your organizing efforts
- Step 2 – Setting up your group: recruitment and formation: build an engaged group of community members
- Step 3 – Growing your group: building relationships and trust: foster meaningful connections and create a strong foundation for collaboration
- Step 4 – Identifying and prioritizing health inequities: understand the challenges affecting your community and determine where to focus efforts
- Step 5 – Understanding the community and key players: map community assets, partners, and opportunities for change
- Step 6 – Designing and testing solutions: co-create approaches that reflect community priorities and lived experiences
- Step 7 – Taking action: turn ideas into strategies that create impact
- Step 8 – Evaluating and communicating progress: measure progress and share lessons learned
- Step 9 – Sustainability: build the structures needed to maintain long-term community engagement
The toolkit also includes ECO Group profiles and an appendix of tools and worksheets to support organizations at every stage of their journey.
Download the toolkit and worksheets to explore how community-led organizing can help advance a more equitable future for older adults.