As summer winds down and a new school year begins, the image of Newton shaped by schools, young families, and children is hard to miss. But alongside that youthful energy, a large and growing community of older adults is looking for ways to keep learning, creating, contributing, and connecting.
Older adults – many of whom have spent decades building their lives in Newton – make up about one-quarter of Newton’s population, according to a 2025 city needs assessment, and that share is expected to grow. Across the city, nonprofits, community organizations, and local institutions are creating opportunities for older residents to stay active, connected, and engaged – among themselves and with younger generations.
Those opportunities don’t all look alike. For some, community means taking a ceramics class or attending a lecture. For others, it means finding a walking group, volunteering with middle school students, joining a faith community, or meeting other LGBTQ+ residents who understand their experiences.
Fig City News has recently explored nine local organizations and programs offering different ways for older adults to connect, learn, contribute, and find community. Here are links to their profiles:
- Newton At Home
- Cooper Center
- New Art Center
- Newton Community Education
- Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning
- LGBTQ+ Newton
- FUUSN’s Over 60s
- Homework Club
- Lasell Village
Newton at Home: Building connections, one ride at a time
For older adults who want to remain in their homes, staying independent can sometimes depend on having someone to help with the small things – getting to an appointment, picking up groceries, or figuring out a new piece of technology. At Newton at Home, those services can become something more: an opportunity to build lasting relationships.
The nonprofit, primarily powered by volunteers, helps older adults age in place by providing transportation, friendly visits, minor home repairs, technology assistance, and other nonmedical services. It also offers social programming, including museum trips, musical performances, health and wellness seminars, conversation and support groups, and book groups.
“It’s really more about that connection, in a way, than it is necessarily about the service that’s being provided,” Executive Director Alexandra Johnson told Fig City News. Volunteers often spend significant time with the members they serve, allowing relationships to develop beyond a single errand or appointment.
Newton at Home was founded to help older residents remain connected to their community while continuing to live independently in their own homes. The organization marked its 15th anniversary earlier this year.
For Johnson, one relationship in particular illustrates what those connections can look like. A Newton at Home member, Shlomit, initially requested help with grocery shopping. Volunteer Phyllis began doing her groceries each week, and the two quickly became close. Eventually, Johnson said, Phyllis “became Shlomit’s person.”
The friendship extended well beyond grocery trips. Phyllis began bringing Shlomit to Thanksgiving and holiday celebrations and introducing her to her children. When Phyllis unexpectedly passed away last fall, Johnson brought Shlomit to her shiva and discovered that Phyllis’s family already knew her well. Shlomit had become, Johnson said, “a part of the family.”
Those relationships are at the heart of Newton at Home. The organization currently serves about 200 people a year and provides roughly 3,000 services, Johnson said. Its reduced-fee membership program offers heavily subsidized rates for residents experiencing financial hardship, with memberships ranging from about $20 a month to free.
Arthur Glasgow, a Newton at Home vice president and volunteer, said he has seen firsthand how meaningful those connections can be. He recalled members in their 80s, 90s, and even early 100s who live alone but look forward to time with their volunteer drivers, friendly visitors, and Newton at Home programs.
For Glasgow, volunteering can also give older adults a renewed sense of purpose. “I get as much or more out of helping our members as they get out of the services I, working through NAH, provide,” he said.
Cooper Center: A place to simply show up
For some older adults, combating isolation can be as simple as having somewhere to go.
That’s part of the idea behind the Cooper Center for Active Living, Newton’s newest hub for older adult programming. The city’s Department of Older Adult Services aims to help older residents remain independent while providing opportunities that keep them engaged, valued, and connected to a broader community.
The center offers more than 100 programs each week, including fitness classes, educational lectures, arts and cultural events, social gatherings, games, and musical performances.
But Mignonne Murray, director of Older Adult Services, said some of the most meaningful connections happen outside of scheduled programming.
“Many of the friendships that begin here happen outside of scheduled programs,” Murray said. People meet while walking on the center’s indoor track, playing billiards or ping pong, sharing a meal at the Cooper Café, reading in the library, or simply sitting together in one of the building’s lounges.
The building itself was designed to encourage those informal interactions. The 33,000-square-foot center includes a gymnasium with a suspended walking track, fitness studio, art and ceramics rooms, a library, lounge areas, a game room with pool tables, meeting spaces, and an outdoor deck overlooking Walnut Street.
The walking track, in particular, has become a daily gathering place, according to Murray. The city describes it as one of the center’s most popular features, with walkers using it throughout the day.
The center also provides opportunities for older adults who may need more than a place to socialize. Its services include resource navigation, transportation assistance and health insurance counseling, while its FriendshipWorks programs connect older residents with volunteers for friendly visits, medical escorts, and help with everyday tasks. The city describes the friendly visiting program as an opportunity for volunteers and older adults to spend time together, share stories, take walks or run errands – and often become friends.
Transportation can also be a barrier to participation, so the city partners with GoGo Newton, an on-demand ride service that takes residents to and from the Cooper Center from anywhere in Newton.
For Murray, the goal is to make the Cooper Center more than a place where older adults attend a class and leave. It’s a place where they can spend time, meet people, and develop a sense of belonging.
“People meet while walking on the indoor track, playing billiards or ping pong, sharing a meal in the Cooper Café, reading in the library, or simply relaxing in one of our lounges,” Murray said. “We strive to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable walking through our doors, whether they come with a friend or on their own.”
The center’s growing use suggests that Newton residents were looking for exactly that kind of space. Murray said the Cooper Center recorded more than 50,000 visits in its first six months.
The range of activities also reflects a changing understanding of what older adults want from their community. Murray said that today’s older residents are looking for opportunities to stay physically active, continue learning, volunteer, explore new interests, and remain involved in Newton – not simply traditional “senior center” programming.
And for someone who isn’t sure where to begin, Murray’s advice is simple: come in.
“Retirement is not the end of something, it’s the beginning of an exciting new chapter,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to explore interests you may never have had time for, meet new people, give back to your community, and focus on your own health and well-being.”
Residents do not need to commit to a class on their first visit. They can have a cup of coffee, walk the track, tour the building, or attend a program that catches their interest.
The idea is that connection doesn’t have to begin with a formal introduction. Sometimes it can begin simply by walking through the door.
New Art Center: Finding community through creativity
At the New Art Center, a ceramics class can become a breakfast club, a painting course can lead to museum trips, and an art studio can become a place to rebuild a social life.
That has been the experience of Esther Dezube, a New Art Center participant and member of its Board of Governors, who has spent the past three years taking ceramics classes at the center. Dezube’s class has developed its own community, calling itself the “Ceramics Ladies.” Members keep in touch by text, meet for breakfast during breaks, and help one another when they get stuck on a project.
Dezube has a kiln and pottery wheel at home, but she continues coming to the New Art Center for something she can’t replicate in her own studio.
“I don’t necessarily have to come here to do my work,” she said. “I want to come here to do my work. I want to socialize.”
That sense of community extends beyond ceramics. Board President Robin Hicks, who began taking classes at the center after retiring, said classmates have organized lunches, museum trips, and other outings together. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the center also organized virtual art-history programming and wine tastings to help people maintain those connections.
The center serves students from more than 115 ZIP codes and has recorded more than 3,300 enrollments over the past year, according to Executive Director Christina An. While the New Art Center serves people of all ages, An said older adults are one of the organization’s strongest demographics.
For An, the center’s impact on older adults goes beyond learning a new skill. She has heard from multiple seniors who came to the center after losing a spouse or loved one and found that creative work gave them a way to process their grief.
“I’ve literally had different people say that ‘this place saved me,’” An said. She said she could think of at least five people who had personally described the center as a lifeline during a difficult period.
Dezube understands that feeling. She arrived at the New Art Center having not taken a formal art class since college and not knowing anyone. Although she was nervous at first, she found the instructors and other students welcoming.
“It just opened up a whole new world,” she said.
The center is also working to ensure that physical or financial barriers do not prevent residents from participating. Recent accessibility improvements included new railings and work on the building’s front steps, and the organization is exploring additional options to help people navigate the stairs. An said a state earmark secured with the help of State Rep. Amy Sangiolo allowed the center to make immediate accessibility improvements. The center also has received a $250,000 state allocation for building and capital improvements, which An said was contingent on Gov. Maura Healey signing the bond bill.
Financial assistance is available as well. An said the center has been able to provide funding to every person who has requested financial aid, while staff also offer phone assistance to people who have difficulty navigating online registration.
The New Art Center’s approach has also attracted recognition beyond Newton. Boston Magazine’s August 2026 The Retirement War Against Boredom highlighted the New Art Center as a place for retirees to take classes and pursue creative interests, alongside the Museum of Fine Arts and other arts organizations.
The recognition comes as the New Art Center looks to deepen its connection with the Cooper Center, which sits just a block away. The organizations already collaborate, with New Art instructors teaching classes at the Cooper Center, and An said she hopes the relationship can create more opportunities for older adults to interact with younger generations.
“Engaging seniors is wonderful,” An said, “but engaging seniors in conversation with younger generations is something that is definitely very top-of-mind for us.”
For An, that reflects a larger role for the arts in retirement: an opportunity for people to discover something new and, in her words, “reinvent themselves.”
And that may be the most compelling part of Dezube’s experience. She did not come to the New Art Center simply looking for another ceramics class. She found a group of people she wanted to keep showing up for.
“This is a place where you make your own box,” Dezube said. “And you’ll be accepted for that.”
Newton Community Education: Learning alongside the community
Retirement can create more time to explore interests that may have been difficult to fit into a working life. Through Newton Community Education (NCE), older residents can use that time to learn something new while remaining connected to the wider Newton community.
A self-sustaining arm of Newton Public Schools, Newton Community Education offers classes for learners of all ages, from children to seniors, with adult courses spanning arts, fitness, languages, technology, hobbies, business and finance, and more. Its mission is to provide lifelong learning opportunities at a reasonable cost, and its classes are open to residents of Newton and beyond.
For older adults, the value of a class can extend beyond what is being taught. Isabella Steenstrup, NCE Summer Operations Support, said classes provide a shared activity and an easy setting for conversation, even when the focus is simply on the activity itself. That is especially true of tabletop offerings such as Mah Jongg and Bridge, where instructor Laurie Probstein has become a favorite among adult students.
The appeal is not necessarily about mastering a game. Returning to the same class week after week can create a familiar routine and a low-pressure way to expand a social circle. Steenstrup said the organization sees “constant returnees,” both students and instructors, who come back for particular classes regardless of age.
NCE also tries to make its programming accessible financially. The organization offers scholarships for people who qualify based on income, with priority given to Newton residents.
The range of adult programming also means older residents do not have to identify themselves as “seniors” to participate. They can take a class alongside younger adults, try something they have never done before, or return to an interest they have not pursued in years. Recent NCE offerings have included classes from meditation and choral singing to estate planning and preparing for retirement.
For someone unsure where to start, Steenstrup recommends browsing the organization’s course catalog online or at the local library. And for those who would rather talk through their options, the NCE office encourages residents to call and speak with staff directly.
The result is a model of lifelong learning that does not separate older adults from the rest of the community. Instead, it gives them another reason to show up, try something new, and see the same people again the following week.
Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning: Keeping curiosity alive
Retirement may mean leaving the workplace, but for members of Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning, it doesn’t mean leaving the classroom. And despite its name, its largest cohort of students live in Newton.
Founded in 1976, Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning (WWLL) offers non-credit courses designed primarily for older adults, although its classes are open more broadly. Unlike many lifelong-learning programs that operate through a college or university, WWLL is an independent nonprofit that is staffed and run entirely by volunteers. The organization recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The classes span a wide range of interests, from history and literature to science, music, languages and current events. Recent offerings have included courses on King Philip’s War, women’s history, memoir writing, and the history of jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.
For Bruce Belason, a participant and longtime Newton resident, the appeal is not simply learning something new but the opportunity to keep exercising the mind alongside other people who are just as curious.
WWLL’s Fall 2026 semester runs from September 14 to November 30. Courses meet Monday mornings in two time slots: course list for 10AM-11AM and course list for 11:30AM-12:30PM.
The organization welcomes participants from well beyond Wellesley and Weston – across 43 communities, of which Newton has the largest participation. The connection to Newton is deeper than the number of participants. For roughly its first three decades, WWLL purchased administrative services from Newton Community Services, according to Belason. And when Newton’s own lifelong-learning program lost its meeting space around 2012, several of its longtime instructors moved to WWLL.
The program is also designed to be remarkably affordable. WWLL’s website currently lists a $25 registration fee regardless of how many courses a participant takes.
That low-cost model is part of what distinguishes WWLL from many other continuing-education opportunities. Participants are not earning degrees or credits; they are there because they want to keep learning. A history class, a discussion about current events, or a course on writing can provide more than intellectual stimulation: it creates a recurring place to see the same people, exchange ideas, and maintain a sense of curiosity after leaving the workforce.
For Newton residents, the program offers another way to remain part of that community of learners, even if the classroom happens to be over Zoom. WWLL moved its courses online during the pandemic and continues to offer its programming virtually.
The format may be different from sitting together in a classroom, but the basic idea remains the same: Retirement doesn’t have to mean retiring from curiosity.
LGBTQ+ Newton: Finding community
For Ellen Simmons, finding community has meant finding a place where she does not have to explain or feel alone in parts of who she is.
Simmons began attending LGBTQ+ Newton’s group when it was still held at Newton’s former senior center. After the group resumed, she was eager to return.
“I am someone who is definitely isolated, so I was happy when the group started again,” Simmons said.
For older LGBTQ+ residents, the need for connection can become more pronounced as social circles change. Friends may move away or die, retirement can remove familiar routines, and health or mobility challenges can make it harder to meet new people.
Simmons said that before joining the group, she was often the only lesbian in the spaces she frequented. Because she uses a rollator, she was also often the only person whose disability was visibly apparent.
People had suggested that she join groups to help with isolation and loneliness, but she was hesitant.
“My answer was always the same,” Simmons said. “I did not want to go because the group would probably have more straight people, and I was tired of being the only Lesbian.”
At LGBTQ+ Newton, she has found something different. She has formed a friendship with another lesbian who also has disabilities, a connection she said is particularly important to her.
“I feel less alone,” Simmons said.
She has also gone to a concert and met other members for breakfast. Those seemingly simple activities have made a meaningful difference.
“Because of these connections, I feel less isolated,” Simmons said.
That sense of belonging is at the center of LGBTQ+ Newton’s programming. The organization hosts gatherings in members’ homes, including craft nights, taco parties, bocce games, and fireside chats, as well as restaurant outings, walks, concerts, Pride events, and collaborations with LGBTQ+ organizations in neighboring communities.
Rosa Buffone, founder of LGBTQ+ Newton, said the group’s activities are intentionally intergenerational and open to allies. Poetry slams, game nights, queer documentaries, and ice cream socials have brought people from different generations together to share stories and discuss LGBTQ+ visibility, civil rights, and public health.
For Simmons, that exchange between generations is particularly meaningful.
She has watched younger LGBTQ+ people react with surprise when they learn about the experiences of previous generations, including times when LGBTQ+ people could face arrest for their identity or risk losing jobs, housing, family relationships, and friendships. Some also faced discrimination from medical professionals.
At the same time, Simmons said older members have plenty to learn from younger people, particularly about gender identity, activism, and the ways understandings of identity have changed.
“I can already see how the older generation has an impact on the younger generation,” Simmons said. “There is so much to learn from younger LGBTQIA+.”
Buffone similarly described the group’s intergenerational work as an opportunity to share history and wisdom while building allyship and resilience against stigma and discrimination.
For Simmons, however, the impact is also much more personal.
“I look forward to seeing the members,” Simmons said. “If someone is not there, I can feel some sadness.”
That may be one of the clearest measures of community: having people whose absence you notice.
For LGBTQ+ Newton, those connections can offer older residents more than another event to attend. They can provide a place where people feel understood, supported and safe to be themselves. As one member previously told the organization, it can become a “chosen family.”
FUUSN’s Over 60s Group: Building community and sharing it
At the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton (FUUSN), older adults have created spaces to connect with one another while also finding ways to build relationships with younger generations.
The congregation’s Over 60s group was developed by older members who wanted a stronger sense of connection with their peers and a place to talk openly about the challenges and opportunities that come with aging.
Wendy Haskell, who helped develop the group, said its founders recognized that older adults brought vitality, skills, and wisdom to the community that were not always recognized.
“We felt that there was a need to feel more connected to our cohort and to have a stronger, coherent voice in the church and in our lives as we met the challenges of this developmental stage of life,” Haskell wrote.
The group began with smaller gatherings where members could discuss issues that were often difficult to find space to address elsewhere, including living arrangements, wills and estate planning, medical forms, health concerns, changing family roles, and other questions surrounding aging.
Over time, it grew into a broad network of activities and relationships. Members have organized presentations and workshops on meditation, yoga, wellness, philosophy, spirituality, death and dying, and medical developments. Self-directed groups have formed around pickleball, walking, writing, and poetry, while men’s and women’s groups have continued independently.
Haskell said those smaller, sustained groups can be particularly important for people who feel isolated or disconnected.
“Giving a person something to do with another person always has the possibility of creating a connection or a deeper connection,” she wrote.
She pointed to one pair of Over 60s members who began ordering food for the group’s presentations and eventually developed a warm friendship through the shared responsibility.
The group also maintains its own email list, where members exchange recommendations and advice about everything from doctors and lawyers to recipes, housing, and decluttering. Haskell called it a “super connector” for the cohort.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of those relationships. When in-person gatherings became impossible, Haskell said, Zoom provided connection, entertainment, and information and helped sustain a sense of belonging during an otherwise isolating period.
But at FUUSN, older adults are not only building community among themselves. They’re also helping create it for the congregation’s youngest members.
That is the idea behind Parents’ Night Out – Kids’ Night In, a program that gives parents of young children up to three hours away from home while adult members of the congregation volunteer to care for their children. The evening for the kids includes pizza, games, and activities, turning what might otherwise be a childcare arrangement into an opportunity for different generations to spend time together.
Bob Persons, a FUUSN member and volunteer, said the program was created partly to attract more young families to the congregation at a time when many religious communities have aging memberships.
Persons volunteers in the nursery and said he and other older members enjoy spending time with children without taking on the responsibilities of raising them.
“It’s not like you have to raise the kid, but you can definitely contribute to the kid’s confidence and experience,” he said.
The benefits extend to parents, too. Persons said parents often return from their evening out looking happy after having dinner with friends without having to worry about their children.
And the children themselves have embraced the tradition. Parents have told Persons that their children now call the event “night church,” eager to return for pizza, games, and time with friends.
For Persons, the program illustrates a larger point about the role of a congregation in combating isolation.
“Just being a member of a congregation, that’s a community, is a way to reduce isolation,” he said.
Together, FUUSN’s programs offer two sides of the same idea: older adults need communities where they can find friendship, purpose, and support, but they also have something valuable to give to the generations coming after them.
Haskell put it simply when describing what she would tell an older adult considering getting involved.
“I think I would tell them it is fun!” she wrote. “It is broadening, and in time, it is getting to feel that you belong in a community.”
At FUUSN, that sense of belonging can mean finding a regular walking group or a circle of friends your own age. It can also mean spending a Friday evening playing games with a group of children who look forward to seeing you at “night church.”
Homework Club: Connecting generations through service
Newton’s retired residents have three things that local middle school students need: time, experience, and a willingness to help.
That is the idea behind the Homework Club, a new pilot program developed by Newton resident and longtime activist Pamela Burton in partnership with Newton Public Schools. The program will pair retired volunteers with middle school students who want additional help with math – creating an opportunity for generations to learn from one another. The pilot is scheduled to begin October 14 at F.A. Day Middle School.
Burton said the idea came after she attended a meeting with Superintendent Anna Nolin and was struck by two issues: declining student performance in math and literacy and what she saw as a disconnect between Newton’s large retired population and the school system.
The pilot will focus on math, with professional math support available to students alongside the volunteer mentors. A grant from state Sen. Cynthia Creem is helping make that professional support possible, allowing the program to bring in math professionals while volunteers focus on encouragement, patience, and one-on-one attention. Volunteers are not expected to be math experts. “The volunteer’s job is to be kind, patient and encouraging,” Burton said.
Burton said Creem’s support was an important part of getting the program off the ground.
The program will meet at F.A. Day Middle School Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:45PM, with students returning home on school buses afterward. Attendance by students is optional.
For Burton, who is 75, the program is also about giving retirees a reason to keep using their skills and interacting with others after leaving the workforce. After owning five businesses, she said she misses the camaraderie and daily exchange of ideas that came with going to work.
She hopes the Homework Club can provide some of that same sense of purpose.
“There are people there who want to see you,” Burton said. “You are of benefit. You have a purpose. You’re doing good.”
The benefits, she said, can run in both directions. Students receive academic assistance and the attention of an encouraging adult, while older volunteers gain an opportunity to contribute to the next generation.
In that sense, the Homework Club represents another way Newton’s older residents can remain woven into the city’s broader community, not by stepping away from the generations that come after them, but by becoming part of their everyday lives.
Lasell Village: Lifelong learning built into the community
Lasell Village is a continuing care retirement community located on the Lasell University campus in Newton. The Village is home to more than 220 older adults, and residents commit to completing 450 hours of individualized continuing education at Lasell each year. The program can include educational, fitness, cultural, and social activities both at the Village and throughout the university campus.
For Anne Doyle, who previously led Lasell Village and now works with intergenerational communities around the country through her firm, Spark Living & Learning, said the most valuable part of Lasell Village isn’t simply putting older adults near college students. It is creating opportunities for the generations to actually interact.
“We often live in our own age bubble,” she said. Young parents tend to spend time with other young parents. Students spend time with other students. Older adults often find themselves in programs designed specifically for people their own age.
“Social connections are important for everyone, regardless of our age,” Doyle said. “There are so many things that happen throughout life that make connecting with other people an imperative for all people, no matter what our age is.”
“Relationships tend to be much more valuable when there’s a mutual exchange,” she said – one in which both people share what’s happening in their lives now as well as what happened in the past.
At Lasell, that exchange can happen organically in a classroom.
Doyle recalled students and Village residents taking the same courses and discovering shared interests. In a class about social movements, for example, a student might explain why a contemporary movement matters to them, while an older resident might respond by describing their own experience participating in social movements decades earlier.
“There’s such a fun exchange between people because of those different experiences,” Doyle said.
The university’s current model reflects that philosophy. Lasell’s RoseMary B. Fuss Center for Research on Aging and Intergenerational Studies promotes intergenerational connections through research, education, partnerships, and programming.
Doyle said the relationships do not have to begin in a classroom, either. Some of the strongest connections develop through ordinary activities: a community garden, a volunteer project or simply sharing an interest.
“I’ve found that it’s been extremely successful and revitalizing for both younger and older people when they’re volunteering together on a shared project and shared interest,” she said.
A model that extends beyond Lasell
Doyle’s work now involves helping other colleges and senior-living communities around the country develop relationships modeled in part on Lasell but they need not replicate Lasell exactly.
What she hopes other communities can borrow is the underlying idea that higher education and senior living do not have to exist in separate worlds.
“We have this wonderful, premier program that has successfully linked a college or university with senior housing,” Doyle said. “The elements of what it means to live and learn together across generations—that’s the part that I’m really able to bring to so many other organizations around the country.”
There is, however, an important limitation to the Lasell model: It is not financially accessible to everyone.
Doyle acknowledged that moving into a continuing-care community like Lasell Village generally requires selling a home or using savings to pay for the costs of living in a community setting.
“Not everyone can afford to move into a place like Lasell Village,” she said.
That makes Newton’s community-based organizations particularly important. Programs at the Cooper Center, New Art Center, Newton at Home, FUUSN, and other local institutions can offer pieces of the same larger goal – learning, connection, volunteering, and community – without requiring someone to move into a senior-living community.
For Doyle, the ultimate goal is to make sure older adults continue to have reasons to participate, contribute, and form relationships.
“When we have that connection, when we’re connected to something in our communities, it’s so fulfilling,” she said.
Beyond the label of “senior”
Doyle also cautions against treating older adults as a single demographic.
“Older adults” can encompass people from their 50s through more than 100, she said, while even beginning at age 65 means grouping together people at dramatically different stages of life.
“There’s a narrative around being a ‘senior citizen’ or an ‘elderly person’ that doesn’t match the reality of being 65 to 75, 75 to 85, 85 to 95, 95 to 105,” she said.
Physical and cognitive changes are a natural part of aging, Doyle said, but they do not eliminate a person’s ability to learn, contribute or find purpose.
“Older people are often served up things where we don’t actually expect much from them,” she said. “I think we all want to have purpose, and we all want people to expect something from us.”
Doyle said that makes the city’s network of organizations particularly valuable.
Newton residents don’t necessarily need to commit to one activity or organization. Instead, she encourages older adults to follow their interests, try something new and find opportunities to contribute.
“You almost can’t turn around in Newton without finding a really fantastic organization,” she said.
Her advice is simple: Raise your hand. Find a friend and try something together.
“I’m a big believer in the buddy system,” Doyle said. “Find a friend—or somebody you’d like to be a friend—and say, ‘Hey, can we try this?’”