Tim Carpenter is the Founder and former Executive Director of EngAGE, a nonprofit that transforms affordable senior apartment communities into vibrant centers of learning, wellness, and creativity. He has served on the board of the National Center for Creative Aging, and he catalyzed the creation of the Burbank Senior Arts Colony, a first-of-its-kind program in the nation. For his inquiry, Tim will search for the next big idea to fuse housing, environmental design, and program design to benefit healthy aging. The senior population is both expanding and evolving, and this requires a new examination of the design of the environments in which people age.
* Tim is now retired.
Fellowship Summary
The Challenge : The thorny issue I sought to address for inquiry was to find the next big idea in senior housing—to fuse housing, environmental design, and programs to achieve higher engagement, behavioral change, and a greater sense of community and purpose for elders.
The Hunch: I would find the solution outside the US, and said solution would be a model that already exists in senior housing and the provision of aging services.
The Proposal : I wanted to focus on models from other countries and to have time to write about my findings in retreat from work. I set up meetings in each location with government officials, universities, thought leaders, NGOs, developers, architects, aging industry leaders, media, artists, cultural leaders, and others.
The Stanton Journey: I traveled to New Zealand, Italy, the Netherlands, and Ireland with Fellowship funds. Due to speaking engagements during the fellowship, I also was in Singapore, Canada, and many US states, and in addition took two week-long writing and research retreats.
My path shifted early on when I started meeting with people in New Zealand, and I became more interested in finding ways to create community across all ages as a way to address my inquiry’s challenge. I realized that community happens in a place like New Zealand—and all the other countries I visited—not just for seniors but for everyone, because of an adherence to culture, mythology, belief, and a feeling that you are part of something larger than yourself. This struck me as what is lacking not only in senior housing, but also in our communities, cities, and towns. It made me think that the buildings we help create and the programs we provide are a good step in the right direction but not enough. We need to play a larger role in communities, in neighborhoods, amongst the people who live in these places. It is about PLACE and PEOPLE.
During my travels, I saw the power of intentionally linking public and private spaces. Doing so creates places that offer people somewhere to go and, more importantly, a reason to stay, to be present there. People. That’s the prize, right? People bring people.
What do people want? Comfort, greenery, water, walkability, arts, culture, a respect for history and neighborhood, education, fun, food, parks, views, a sense of connection and community, a sensory connection to the human spirit. We want all ages to be curious, we want diversity and open acceptance of who we are. We want out-of-the-box usage of space to create a sense of place, of purpose, and of belonging. We want gardens. And did I mention the arts? Music, dance, visual art, performance. We want to smile and to look around and see others smiling. We want accidental spillover between our circles of life and those of others, to feel part of something larger than ourselves. Connection. We can design buildings and places, but they’re only the hardware. We are the software.
Where You Are Now : My work—and frankly, my life—has been forever altered by my experience as a Stanton Fellow. As a result of this two-year journey, the work of EngAGE—my work—has changed. We revised our design methods for the buildings we have in development with our partners to more carefully curate the public and private spaces to better serve the people who will live there. We have expanded from seniors-only into multigenerational, all-ages communities. We have also begun to work more closely and carefully with community partners to make sure our communities and programs are integrated fully into the tapestry of the neighborhood and those that call them home.
As a most recent example, we entered into a partnership with a developer to purchase and operate a free-standing cultural facility in Northeast Portland (the Alberta Abbey) to deepen our impact in that neighborhood. Utilizing our affordable housing and programs, our goal is to breathe life back into the African American community there through housing, arts, culture, and true community collaboration. EngAGE will serve not only as the curator of programs and engagement for the housing, but also as the neighborhood curator—fostering collaboration between cultural organizations, residents, business, and the spaces in between to create a sense of purpose and community at large. EngAGE now helps developers and development teams create communities, not just buildings.
My Stanton Fellowship will live on, and it infuses everything we now do at EngAGE.
