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Age Friendly Little Rock presents 2025–2028 action plan, seeks board support
Summary
The Age Friendly Little Rock Commission presented a 2025–2028 action plan to the Little Rock City Board of Directors, summarizing AARP community-assessment findings and priorities on communication, housing, transportation and health supports and asking the board and departments for continued support and recruitment help for commission vacancies.
Blake Tierney, chair of the Age Friendly Little Rock Commission, presented the commission’s newly approved 2025–2028 action plan to the Little Rock City Board of Directors on June 3, 2025, and asked the board for ongoing support and help recruiting commissioners for several vacant seats.
Tierney said the commission — created by ordinance in February 2019 and part of the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities — will focus its first-year work on four priority areas: communication and information, housing, transportation, and health and community supports.
The commission’s community assessment, which Tierney said drew nearly 1,000 respondents with an average age of 65, showed the city’s overall AARP livability score at 48. Major themes included limited access to readable information, shortage of affordable and accessible housing, transportation gaps and uneven access to fitness and social programs. Tierney told the board that about 68% of survey respondents rated access to information as poor or fair and that fewer than one in three respondents said traffic signs were easy to read. He said AARP data the commission used shows roughly 700 unhoused residents in the city, with about 20% of them aged 55 or older.
The plan lists specific activities: develop age-friendly communication best-practice guidance and a dedicated city web page; expand digital literacy and trusted-navigator training; compile a vetted list of contractors and home-repair guidance for aging-in-place; coordinate with partners on affordable, accessible housing and neighborhood engagement; and work with city staff to integrate age-friendly principles into decision-making and staff training.
Tierney asked city directors to help recruit commissioners for vacant ward seats (he identified vacancies in Wards 4, 5, 6 and 7) and said commissioners would be more visible at future board meetings. He invited board members and the public to the commission’s second annual Age Friendly Livable Communities Summit and Expo on Sept. 11 at West Central Community Center.
Tierney: “We look forward to having support of you all and people in the public, community groups, agencies, each of the departments.”
The presentation concluded without a board vote; Tierney said the commission will continue to provide input on the senior center renovation at University Park and follow up with city departments on implementation items.
AARP network membership, the commission’s ordinance, the community-assessment results and the action plan were all referenced in the presentation.
