Community Board 11 prioritizes senior services, accessible health care in district needs submission

Community Board 11 members and residents used a Jan. 14 joint meeting of the Health & Social Services and Community Development and Budget Priorities committees to shape the district’s annual narrative and budget priorities, placing special emphasis on services for older adults, local health-care access, mental-health supports and youth programming.

The committees — chaired by Sandra Unger (Health) and Ryan Barthel (Community Development and Budget Priorities) — discussed the Office of Management and Budget guidance for the district narrative (500–1,500 words), where to document top district needs and how to frame health- and human-service requests for the city budget process. "Since our seniors are our fastest growing demographic and our largest demographic, we need more services, facilities, programs for seniors," Barthel said during the discussion.

Why it matters: Committee members said the district’s demographic change and gaps in neighborhood services make targeted requests necessary. Residents and service providers…