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September 15, 2025 15 mins
For most people, it’s hard to imagine life without access to a computer or broadband. And yet, according new a study by The Center For An Urban Future, tens of thousands of Bronx residents remain cut off from these basic tools for work, school, and everyday connectivity. Jonathan Bowles from the Center for an Urban Future talks about tackling the digital divide in the Bronx. 
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thanks for listening to Get Connected. Perhaps you weren't aware.
New York State has one of the largest populations of
adults over sixty, and the older adult population is growing
faster than any other group. For the first time, New
York State has proposed a master Plan for Aging. It
is a roadmap addressing a range of issues and challenges
focused on improving equity, dignity, and independence for older New Yorkers.

(00:35):
We will find out more with Jeremy Kaplan, the executive
director of OnCore Community Services, a twenty twenty four nonprofit trailblazer,
and a vocal advocate for older adults and the care
workforce that supports them. Jeremy Kaplan, good to see you again,
Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Oh, thank you so much for having me back. Meane,
that's always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You can find out more about the organization at ENCORENYC
dot org and more about the plan at Plan for
Aging dot ny dot gov. It's funny those in those
statistics at the beginning. Jeremy Actually, we keep hearing about
New Yorker's leaving and retiring elsewhere, but that's not the
case for everybody. No.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
In fact, the older adult population is just skyrocketing. I mean,
thankfully we're living longer, but we're not ready, you know.
I think in New York State right now, the older
adult population is over three million, and by twenty thirty,
it's going to be over five million. And our infrastructure
is in keeping up, and our community care resources are

(01:38):
in keeping up. And I don't know, but Nina, but
I'm getting old too. We're all with every breath we take,
we're getting older. So we have a lot of work
to do here in New York.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
We're going to need all these things right that we're
going to talk about. But also the people that are
leaving are often people with means. Right Encore is serving
people through affordable and supportive housing, through delivering meals, through
helping people secure their benefits. What are some of the
you know, I mean, I just mentioned a couple, but
what are some of the biggest challenges for older New
Yorkers that the average person would not think about?

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Food security? Is it a big one? Many of the
folks that we deliver meals to tell us that the
one meal that they get from us is the only
source of food that they have. In some cases, they're
rationing out that meal over the course of a day.
Many many of the folks that we work with live alone,
so you know, their friends, their family have either moved

(02:28):
away or passed away, and so social isolation is a
big challenge. And helping people stay connected so that they're
not lonely and so that their their minds are actively
engaged is important. And then you know, of course, when
people stop working, they live on a fixed income, right
and unfortunately, the cost of living in New York City,

(02:50):
in New York State is not fixed, and so we
really need to help make our state and especially our
city more affordable for all of us as we age.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
So the Master Plan for Aging has been in process
for about three years. The policy making officially launched by
an executive order by Governor Hokele in twenty twenty two.
So this, this roadmap became a priority. You said this
state wasn't ready, but I guess the state is looking
at the population. Your thoughts overall of kind of the
development and where it ended up or has ended up

(03:22):
so far, yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
I think it's in a way, it's it's a landmark
achievement because it's the first, the first of its kind
of the nation. And the plan is the plan is comprehensive,
and it acknowledges that we don't age in a sylo right.
We age on our transportation systems, we age in our
grocery stores, we age in our neighborhoods, and so that,

(03:45):
you know, the plan coordinates all of the various aspects
of society. You know, it has it has proposals that
focus on helping you stay in your home, helping make
life more affordable, helping the people who help us as
we get older, the caregivers and the support staff, and
just help staying socially connected.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
How was the plan put together?

Speaker 3 (04:08):
You know, it really was a stakeholder driven and inclusive process. Right, So,
hundreds of stakeholders around the state, including local areas on aging,
including nonprofit organizations that work with older adults, including healthcare organizations,
and individuals individual older adults were involved in the in

(04:29):
the commission over the last three years that created this
this MPa and which ultimately led to these one hundred
and twenty six proposals. Now we need to narrow down
and prioritize the proposals, but it was an incredibly inclusive process.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Is there an overall focus and overall strategy to the plan.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
There is a focus on equity and equity in the
sense that you know, aging is not a monolithic experience, right,
people who are getting older in rural parts of the
city versus people who are getting older and in New
York City versus people who are getting older within you know,
the rich, diverse cultural landscape that we have in our state.

(05:08):
Have have different needs and the plan gets to that.
The plan gets to the equity aspect around aging, meaning
more dollars you know, need to be spent in different areas.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I want to talk about some of the proposals. There
are actually quite a few of them. It was released
in June. Again, you can.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Fund it at one hundred and twenty six.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
One hundred and twenty six. It's a lot of things.
They're across nine different areas. It's housing, its affordability, it's technology.
What was your input to the proposals?

Speaker 3 (05:36):
What struck me is again is how is how comprehensive
you know the proposals were so that they're you know,
there there I believe they're chunked into nine, nine distinct pillars,
and you know, you name some of them. My input
is is that it's just great that we're talking about it.
I mean, the New York City Department for the Aging

(05:57):
NYC Aging is the lowest funded city agency of any
New York City department, receiving less than one half of
one percent of the city budget. And so there is
there's there's a there's a lot of focus in the
in the master Plan on Aging around modernization of the
spaces that serve older adults, modernization of our senior centers,
modernization of our of our nutritional programs, but also resources

(06:22):
that that help them, that help the workforce. Right, the
workforce that are taking care of each of us as
we age is a focus of this of this plan,
as is as is technology and compatting agism and elder
or abuse. It's truly a comprehensive plan.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Our guest is Jeremy Kaplan. He's the executive director of
OnCore Community Services. The mission of Encore is to provide
care and service to the elderly of the Clinton Times
Square Midtown communities, including those who are frail, poor, homeless,
or home bound to help them with their daily needs
that they might live as independently as possible. Their website
is OnCore NYC dot org. You can find out more

(07:00):
about volunteering by the way at the website as well,
and you can find out more about the plan we're
talking about at Plan for Aging dot ny dot gov.
It is the New York State Master Plan for Aging.
You're listening to get connected on one six point seven
light FM, Amina del Rio. Let's talk about some areas
that again you might be particularly interested in. One of

(07:22):
the things you do is deliver many, many thousands of
meals across the city. How does this plan tackle assisting
elderly who are homebound?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
In two ways Nina One, it prioritizes food security and
home delivered meals. Right, so, the plan includes proposals to
increase funding for what we call in New York City
community care right in home services, you know, services that
we bring to people who are unable to leave their
homes is what we call in home care, and that
includes you know, food and nutrition. And so when the

(07:56):
master Plan becomes actualized, older adults who are food and
secure will have all of the meals that they need
to be fully nourished. But on top of that, the
service providers who are cooking the meals and delivering the
meals will have more modern infrastructure. So currently there's not
a lot of capital support to upgrade our kitchens, to
upgrade our trucks, and most direly, our workforce. The people

(08:20):
that are cooking the meals, the people that are delivering
the meals, the people that are checking on the older
adults who who depend on these meals are making poverty
level wages, you know, themselves, and it's very hard to
retain these essential staff members. And so there are quite
a few proposals that get a debt. They get at
supporting the workforce that takes care of older New Yorkers

(08:43):
and all New Yorkers as we get older.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
You talked about that last time we spoke about the
low wages for workers in elder care. These are wages
that are set by contracts with the city and state
that keep people sort of at the poverty level, which
is the same as the people they're serving. So in
what ways does the plan address that?

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, you know, there are proposals that are aimed at
at educational institutions, so enhancing programs that train you know,
professionals to get into older adult services. There are proposals
that are aimed at enhancing contracts that fund not not
for providence and healthcare organizations that employ these individuals. And

(09:27):
there are proposals that that are aimed at at public
awareness campaigns so that, you know, when when young people
graduate high school and go to college, or when young
people enter the workforce, they hear and see messages about
aging and about jobs in aging that make those jobs
appear as attractive as they truly are and as meaningful

(09:48):
as as they truly are, so that we're not dealt
with such a such a you know, an an ageous
perspective in terms in terms of the workforce.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
What is one of the ways that the plan tackles acessibility.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
One thing that struck me is that it tackles accessibility
within people's homes. You know, one of the reasons, one
a significant reason why why people are unable to live
at home is because they, you know, their homes simply
aren't aren't accessible. And so there are proposals aimed at
at installing grab bars right into into into people's showers,

(10:22):
at installing ramps within buildings, incentivizing developers and grading developers
on the accessibility of people's homes. And there are also
proposals around making our transportation systems more accessible, more bus routes,
more accessible buses, and modernizing our subway in our infrastructure systems. Now, look,

(10:44):
this is going to be if it were fully when
fully realized, a multi billion dollar investment right over many years.
We're talking about modernizing the New York City, the New
York City transportation system, let alone transportation systems are around
the state, on top of all of these other coordinated
pillars around around aging. And so the key question, I

(11:10):
believe is going to be, you know, are we going
to put our money where our mouths are? You know,
is there fuel in the tank for this plan?

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, that's the question. So we have the proposal. You
can read it online. You can read about all these points.
It's a little legally, but you can read it all.
So what is the next step for the implementation.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
The next step is to is to fund it. In
year one, there was a down payment so to speak,
the governor. The governor included forty five million dollars in
the state's budget, which was passed by the legislature to
minimize wait lists throughout the state, waitlists for case management
services and other in home services. And then this came

(11:48):
from one of the proposals that was suggested in the MPa.
But clearly it's just it's just a starting point. There
is a campaign, you know, there's a campaign that's led
by Live on Me Work, which is a coalition. It's
an advocacy organization that consists of a coalition of aging
service providers, nonprofits like on Core Community Services and hundreds

(12:10):
of other nonprofits like on Core Community Services around the state.
And AID Strong New York is a multi billion dollar
campaign that's aligned with with the MPa. And you know,
we need our elected officials to put the money where
their mouths are, you know, so to speak, and we
need everyday New Yorkers to really push for that right
to expect accountability and an execution of this very detailed

(12:35):
and very groundbreaking master plan on aging that we've developed.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
So what could someone listening do when you talk about
pressing for it to go forward?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Call the Governor's office and thank her for the plan.
And call your local state senator, call your your your
your local state assembly person and say you know what
I was reading through the MPa, I'm and I'm quite
impressed you As an older adult or as somebody who
aspires to be an older adult, I am concerned about

(13:05):
how I'm going to stay in my home. I am
concerned about how I'm going to care for my older
parent or my grandparent. So thank you for the plan. Now,
now let's fund it.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
So the goodness is we have the planet covers so
many different areas well, hope to see what gets implemented.
Anything else you'd like to add.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Well, this is such great progress in the sense that
our state government is recognizing the need to make this
type of investment for older New Yorkers. We can't just
depend on government right as individuals, we have to take
a look and reach out and ask our neighbors, are
you okay? Go across the you know, if you're living

(13:48):
in the city, knock on the door across from you
and check on that elderly person you know that's across
from you, and ask them if they need any help.
Do they have the food that they need? You know?
Look up your local senior center. All of our seat
centers throughout New York City there are three hundred and
twenty of them, and I can tell you at on
Core Community Services, we need volunteers. We need people to
help us deliver meals, We need people to help socialize

(14:10):
with older adults. This is an all hands on deck
situation and we need donations. Nonprofit organizations need philanthropic support
and individual support so that we can continue the work
that we do.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
And there are many ways to volunteer with on Core
Community Services. You can find out more at Encore NYC
dot org. You can find out about the Plan for
Aging at Planned Foraging dot ny dot gov. Jeremy Kaplan
is the executive director of OnCore Community Services. Thank you
for being on Get Connected.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Oh, thank you Nina for having me.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one OHO six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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