University
USC Student Named to Commission on Aging
- Lynne Reynolds
By Athan Bezaitis on November 24, 2009 7:44 AM
Inspiration struck USC gerontology student Lynne Reynolds when she noticed that a large number of seniors living alone in her Berkeley neighborhood were rarely visited by friends or relatives.
An architectural designer with community ties, it occurred to her that the neighborhood’s block association, which received positive support from its city councilman, might be an ideal place to begin providing support for older adults.
After attending a workshop on the changing face of senior housing featuring USC’s Victor Regnier at Harvard University, she enrolled in the USC Davis School’s Master of Arts in Gerontology program, electing to take classes online so she could keep her full-time job at a local architecture firm.
This month, armed with her ideas for change and a semester away from completing her degree this spring, she was appointed to the Berkeley Commission on Aging.
“The commission was looking to fill a vacancy and commissioners were discussing some of the attributes that they were looking for,” said Ryan Lau, aide to Councilman Darryl Moore. “Something that was specifically requested was a younger graduate student in gerontology … which is exactly Lynne Reynolds.”
According to the city’s Web site, the commission is “charged with identifying the needs of the aging, creating awareness of these needs and encouraging improved standards of services to the aging.” Reynolds’ role will be to advise the city council and all other city boards and commissions, departments and private agencies on matters affecting the elderly.
At a meeting with the commission chairperson, Reynolds discussed her initial idea to help older people in her former neighborhood, calling the potential program “Neighbors for Seniors.”
“My goal is to identify as many of these isolated seniors as possible and connect them with individuals in nearby neighborhood associations who would agree to keep in contact with them and, to whatever degree they are able or interested, actively integrate them into their family lives - essentially adopting them,” she said.
Committed to seeing Berkeley become one of the World Health Organization's “Age-Friendly Cities,” she realized after the first board meeting just how severe the impact of the California budget crisis will be on local policy initiatives.
“That does make it seem like a much longer term goal than I would have thought would be necessary,” she said.
Still, she intends to bring an expanded outline of her program to the commission in the coming months that will connect it to the ongoing emergency preparedness, senior housing and disability programs currently under way throughout the city.
“I think that she will be able to tease out many issues that some of the other commissioners understand and have likely experienced, but don’t really know how to translate into policy or programming,” Lau said. “I think she will add a great deal to the commission.”
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