In March when our state was considering a stay-at-home order, Centralina Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and the state of North Carolina canceled all in-person workshops. The Centralina team immediately began listening to webinars scheduled through the National Council on Aging and Administration on Community Living as a potential online option for delivering health programs, specifically evidence-based programming. Centralina AAA selected to use the Living Healthy Learning Kit as an at-home workshop option for AAAâs across the state in response to the COVID-19 situation.
Other North Carolina agencies, such as NC Division of Aging & Adult Services and the University of North Carolina at Asheville, were also interested in distance learning programming to help assist older adults with the new level of isolation that social distancing brings. In collaboration with these two state agencies, Centralina led the initiative to add Living Healthy Learning Kit workshops across the AAAâs by hosting an informational webinar and creating workshop documents. Centralina also established the protocols and assisted in the logistics on how to coordinate the six-week, at-home course that provides weekly conference calls check-ins with participants.
Within our region, Centralinaâs team of local providers and staff have initiated 12 of the Living Healthy Learning Kit workshops, which began in May 2020. The Centralina AAA team is also exploring virtual workshops as an option to begin in July 2020.
For more information, please contact Angel Vanover, Aging Specialist with Centralina AAA, at avanover@centralina.org or 980.521.3935, or view our program flyer.
