Community

Doesn't dancing under the stars to music provided by top Utah big bands such as City Jazz, Caleb Chapman's Crescent Super Band, Wasatch Jazz Project, Tad Calcara & New Deal Swing, 23rd Army Band and the Joe Muscolino Band sound like a great time? Throw in free dance classes and food trucks from the Food Truck League and you have the ingredients for a wonderful evening. Big Band Summer at the Gallivin Center will run every Tuesday night throughout June, July, and August.

AARP UTAH MUSIC FOR GROWNUPS

To our readers: The AAA Fair Credit Foundation is based in Salt Lake City and is a partner with AARP Utah on teaching how to save and plan for the future. This is one story about a family they helped through their Individual Development Accounts Program. We thought it was a heartwarming example of what planning for the future can do for a family.

Hartford Change AGEnts is proud to present "Portrait of a Caregiver," a dramatic and moving play based on the real-life experiences and interviews of 22 Utah caregivers. "Portrait of a Caregiver" was created through a partnership of the University of Utah College of Nursing, the Utah Caregiver Support Program, and the Hartford Change AGEnts Initiative that aims to bring awareness to the needs of family caregivers who provide the majority of long-term care in Utah and are seldom prepared for this role.

Did you know that in Utah, one in seven people are at risk of missing a meal today, and one is six seniors in the state faces hunger? Yet sixty percent of seniors eligible for food stamps are not receiving benefits. This may be because many who are hungry do not have information about where to go for help, how to apply for benefits, or what they need to do to receive assistance.

We all want to reside in a community that's a great place to live, and AARP wants to help cities across the country and here in Utah get there! That's the basis for the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities program, which encourages cities, towns, and communities to commit to improving their age-friendliness and submit to a rigorous membership assessment cycle.

November marks National Family Caregivers Month, a time to recognize the more than 336,000 family caregivers in Utah who help older parents, spouses, and other loved ones live independently at home, where they want to be. The unpaid care they provide through managing medications, cooking meals, driving to appointments, performing complex medicals tasks and more is valued at $4.15 billion in Utah alone.

Falls are a common and often devastating problem among older people, causing injuries that are sometimes life-threatening. Falls can also lead to a loss of independence or premature admittance to a nursing home. Most falls are associated with one or more identifiable risk factors (e.g. weakness, unsteady gait, confusion and certain medications) but research has shown that intervention can significantly reduce these risk factors when done properly. That's where programs like "Stepping On" can help by providing tips for people on how to prevent falls. "Stepping On" is a seven-week workshop with classes that include:

Sometimes life takes you in a different direction than where you thought you'd go. But it's never too late to make a change--and we can guide you. Now is the time for you to dust off a few dreams. At a Life Reimagined Check-Up, you can:

AARP Utah teamed up with Fox 13 News to hold a shredding event on Saturday, July 11 at 6985 Union Park Center, just around the corner from our state office. With Fox 13's promotion of the event and our outreach to members in the area, we had 500-600 cars come through to shred sensitive documents. It was a turn-out that went beyond our expectations. What a great way to help fight fraud in our state! Shred-It very generously donated four trucks for the event and provided these numbers on how we helped the environment through this shredding and recycling effort: