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CASOA

Yes, America is aging. But aging is not something that simply happens to a country. It happens in houses neighborhood by neighborhood. Most residents want to age in the communities where they live, but as the needs of residents change, communities must change with them.

So, what is a community to do to plan for its aging residents? Planning for increased numbers of older adults requires the wisdom to ask older adults themselves about their circumstances and needs.

With the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA), NRC offers a unique scientific survey of older adults’ perceptions about their communities and future needs. This tested service includes consultation, administration, analysis and reporting on a variety of older adult needs.

The NRC older adult needs assessment service package is a powerful strategic planning and evaluation tool that communities use to:

  • develop older adult service plans
  • determine how future resources should be allocated
  • evaluate current service provision
  • influence key stakeholders
  • empower community members
  • demonstrate the economic contribution of older adults
  • monitor success

Objectives

  • Identify community strengths and weaknesses
  • Articulate the specific needs of older adults in community
  • Develop estimates and projections of resident need in the future

Methods

  • Multi-contact scientific mailed survey
  • Representative sample of 1,000 older resident households
  • Data statistically reweighted to reflect population
  • Margin of error of +/- 5%


CASOA is simple, low cost and well tested from two of the most respected organizations in the country - National Research Center, Inc. the premier survey research firm for local government and NRPA (est. 1965), the service organization for parks and recreation managers. Here’s how CASOA works.

CASOA Background

NRC developed CASOA to address the planning needs associated with the rapidly aging American population.  CASOA is designed as a low-cost high quality needs assessment that provides credible empirical evidence of the opinions of a representative sample of all older adults in your area. The package is customizable to make it affordable to communities both large and small. CASOA has been administered to more than 10,000 Americans over age 60, so it is well tested. And with a subset of CASOA questions given to more than 30,000 older adults the service relies on a vast dataset to permit comparison of your older residents’ perspectives to the opinions of other older adults across the country.

CASOA researchers are well respected, nationally recognized, innovators in the area of older adult needs assessments and survey research. They have presented results of CASOA research at national conferences and in national publications.

Example CASOA Results

CASOA focuses on a series of resident needs and community supports that foster successful aging. More than 40 common issues affecting older adults drawn from older adult programming practices and the literature on aging are assessed in categories of overall quality of community; health and wellness; community land use and design; participation in various productive activities; community belonging and community resources for information and planning.

Getting started

It’s easy to have CASOA conducted in your area. Send an email to casoa@n-r-c.com and NRC professionals will contact you via email or phone, whichever you prefer. We’ll answer your questions and send you a simple starter kit with a few pieces of information to complete. We’ll give you references and costs (starting at $8,950) and a timeline that will work for your specific use. An example timeline appears below.


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