Neighborhoods change, either through gentrification, decreased property values or population decline. Aging adults who want to remain in their neighborhoods may face particularly marginalizing and exclusionary hardships when their neighborhoods undergo rapid changes. As neighborhood demographics shift, or friends and family move away, older adults may struggle with acute distress and disruptions to their social networks.
In response to these challenges, some researchers are experimenting with macro therapeutic interventions (MTI) - interventions designed to engage residents in addressing community concerns, while benefiting those who participate.
In her recent research paper, Older Adults in Action: Using Action Research to Address Neighborhood Change, Professor Amie Thurber at PSU’s School of Social Work outlines how the Neighborhood Story Project employs and promotes therapeutic interventions in communities facing disruption.
The Neighborhood Story Project is a 12-week facilitated process of engaging community members while taking direct action in their neighborhoods. Previous projects have culminated in a documentary film about a contested high school in a gentrifying neighborhood, a set of anti-displacement organizing tools for a historically African-American neighborhood, and an oral history archive of local African-American history.
"[T]he idea of a macro therapeutic intervention is that it's an intervention that's designed to affect some kind of community or organizational change," Thurber says. "It's benefiting the people who are involved in making that change. You can bring people together to change their communities or improve their communities in ways that simultaneously help the people involved."
Thurber draws on the 2018 work of Kristin Furgesson, Samantha Teixeira, Laura J. Wernick, and Steve Burghardt, who posit four key characteristics of MTIs: the people involved are the ones who are directly affected by the problem they are trying to solve, the intervention itself is designed to build capacity for the people involved (it's not just about the outcome, it is also about the process; gaining skills knowledge, or confidence), there is a team-based approach to problem-solving that brings people together as a group (learning what is possible together that might not be possible on one's own), and linking personal concerns with larger political context and the broader challenges or struggles that are happening within the community.
Libraries, community development organizations, and community-based nonprofits apply to participating funding organizations for grants to launch Neighborhood Story Projects in their area. These funded organizations identify prospective facilitators to lead the initiative in their communities. Local facilitators recruit community members through neighborhood associations or community meetings, describing the project, its goals and participatory requirements.
The core characteristics of MTIs are reflected in the design of the Neighborhood Story Project, which engages small groups of residents to be researchers in their own neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Story Project described in Thurber's research took place in several Tennessee communities in conjunction with the area nonprofit Humanities Tennessee. As it progressed, the project went from three participating neighborhoods to seven.
While not explicitly designed for them in mind, Thurber says that she was surprised to discover that older adult research participants overwhelmingly responded to the project (58% of the overall research participants were over the age of 55). She explains there are several reasons for this: older adults often have more flexible schedules, they are socially and politically engaged, and they also possess critical expertise they recognize as being valuable, as well as acute understandings of their distinct vulnerabilities as neighborhoods experience change.
"What we found is that the people who are drawn to participate in the Neighborhood Story Project are people who know a lot about where they live," Thurber adds. "They're well connected and they have a sense of responsibility to their communities and a desire to learn more."
Six of the seven Tennessee communities outlined in Prof. Thurber's research (Thurber oversaw the onsite field research in three sites and provided monthly technical assistance calls to each facilitation team) are historically African-American neighborhoods. Three Nashville neighborhoods experienced gentrification, while Jefferson City, Martin City and Pulaski City experienced declining populations. In the case of Pulaski City, disinvestment and decreased property values were additional distress factors.
The psychological consequences of these changes leave many longtime residents feeling ostracized and alienated within neighborhoods that once functioned generationally as central hubs for community, socialization and support. According to Thurber's research, when neighborhood demographics shift—for example, when a historically African-American neighborhood gentrifies and younger, white residents move in—older adults who are long-time residents may experience social isolation, exclusion and racism, contributing to increased anxiety and depression.
"The most common thing that I hear from particularly African-American residents in gentrifying neighborhoods is this experience of being treated like you don't belong in your own community," Thurber says, recalling discussions with African-American residents in gentrified Portland neighborhoods. "Instead of walking down the street and having your neighbors wave to you or greet you by name, you have people giving you the side eye and wondering what you're doing there."
Limited scholarship exists exploring older adults and social action within the context of neighborhood change, Thurber's research found. The key difference between her study and other literature in this area is that most studies focus on the contributions older adults can make to others in their age group, rather than to the community at large.
As Thurber discusses in her paper, while the target of each Neighborhood Story Project centers on neighborhood change, participant researchers experienced an increased sense of place attachment and social ties throughout the project. Half the researchers credited their participation with fueling their continued community engagement and a strong desire to learn.
During her research, Thurber discovered that older adults possess a high capacity to learn new skills (information about their neighborhoods, specialized research techniques, utilizing computers and software, honing interpersonal skills) and a strong sense of responsibility to their communities.
The project's educational value also afforded researchers new perspectives not only on how their neighborhoods are governed but how zoning regulations can accelerate new development which often leads to displacement.
Educational tools such as MTI impacted the researcher's neighborhood and community attachment, particularly where African-American history is obscured or omitted entirely. From attending city council meetings to one resident's election to public office, The Neighborhood Story Project's effect on older adults in action proved incredibly beneficial for those participating.
"I think one of the things we know about aging is that it's important for people to have a sense of agency or autonomy," says Thurber. "Or the ability to make choices and have their needs met in their immediate environment. I think it's important for all of us, whatever our ages are, to feel that we're someplace where we feel safe and where we feel we belong."