Vaccine companion warning.
On February 11 Massachusetts began allowing people who accompany residents 75 years and older to mass vaccination sites to get their own shots as well. Now some younger people are offering free rides to strangers. Council on Aging Director Ruthann Dobek and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Swannie Jett strongly advise seniors to only accept rides from family members or people they know well.
News release.
A new report from UMass Boston identifies aging equity among Boston residents.
Boston’s Older Population: Increasing in Racial Diversity, but Quality of Life is Shaped by Racism, Discrimination
Posted on February 18, 2021 by maria.iacobo
A new report from UMass Boston identifies aging equity among Boston residents
Eviction Diversion Initiative

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health wants to reach households early – before an eviction takes place – to provide funding and mediation tools to work with landlords. We’ve launched a new website that connects residents to their local Housing Consumer Education Center, answers
frequently asked questions, and more at
www.mass.gov/CovidHousingHelp.
Living With COVID-19 Survey
BrooklineCAN and the Brookline Senior Center will be conducting a survey in the weeks ahead to discover how seniors are adapting to a world with COVID-19.
Understanding that everyone has to assess their own level of risk, we can be a wonderful resource for one another during these difficult days. Sharing what we are doing and how we are doing it, as well as what we are not doing, can help us to better understand the needs of our senior community.
An online copy of the survey is available here.
If you would like a hard copy of the survey mailed to you, please call us at 617-730-2777.
$$$ for Senior Homeowners & Renters!
You may qualify for cash or credit from the state if
you pay rent or property taxes.
Click for details.
Senior living forum.
Center Communities of Brookline
seeks focus group participants
to share their views and
opinions on a senior living
community being planned
in Coolidge Corner.
Click for large image
Assisting People With Vision Loss During The Pandemic.
Town of Brookline Releases Instructional Video Guide. The Town of Brookline, Massachusetts has just released a new instructional video telling and showing via demonstration clips how to guide a person with vision loss in a variety of everyday situations. This video is free to all and may be used by any agencies, organizations, groups, or individuals who find it useful.
Complete news release.
Link to Video.
Brookline's Age-friendly Cities TV team helped produce this video.
BIG and Brookline Community
Brookline Interactive Group continues our service in meeting Brookline's communications needs, helping our community to share their stories, and keeping our democracy transparent.
This week's coverage of the Fourth District Congressional race is comprehensive- partnering with the League of Women Voters and Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity (BRJE), our colleagues at seven other community media centers from north to south, to support two candidate's forums for this important race. Our ongoing collaboration with State Representative, Tommy Vitolo, produces a thirty-minute weekly show to highlight each candidate in more detail.
Stay tuned and read more about our online classes, new community content, youth media programs, and to participate by creating your own scene in our 2020 Crowdsourced Boston production of Cast Away!
Full details here.
Phone-friendly BrooklineCAN website
When we created this web site in 2011, we designed it for wide-screen desktop systems. Now many people use smaller phones and tablets. Our site could always use those devices, but the pages didn’t really fit. Now we automatically rearrange content so it displays comfortably on all devices. As screens get narrower so do paragraphs; two columns become one; the menu disappears but can be recalled by pressing a button. You can see these changes on your desktop or laptop computer by narrowing the browser window. We hope this will make our site more useable on all screens.
Walkable Brookline Survey
Visitors to
BrooklineCAN's table at Brookline Day 2019 had the opportunity to answer a survey that asked "What should
BrooklineCAN emphasize in advocating to make Brookline more walkable?" Fifteen people answered.
Here are the results. We plan to offer the survey at future events.
A report on opinions of older Brookline residents
In 2018 Brookline participated in the National Citizen Survey, an effort to capture
the opinions of residents on a wide range of topics concerning the Town. We are
reporting here a special analysis that compared responses of those 65 and older
with younger respondents. The analysis shows both similarities and differences
between the responses of older and younger residents. .
Click here to see the full
report. with your questions and comments:
More Beacon Street benches.
In January 2019 Frank Caro asked the Town's Department of Public Works to consider adding five additional benches on Beacon Street.
Here is Frank's report. This is an initiative of
BrooklineCAN's Livable Community Advocacy Committee and the Brookline Age-Friendly City Committee.
Update, August 2019: The town has installed five new benches. Pictures here.
TRIPPS report
This report, issued April 1, 2019 by TRIPPS (Transportation Resources, Information, Planning & Partnership for Seniors), describes local transportation experiences of Brookline Seniors in the context of current research on older adults, transportation and community life.
BrooklineCAN announces its new Age-Friendly Business campaign.
Details here.
The Silent Call Procedure
The “
Silent Call Procedure” is used when a caller is unable to verbally communicate their emergency over the phone. If a resident of Massachusetts calls 9-1-1 and is unable to speak for
any reason.
Click for large image
Designing Communities For An Aging America
In an aging nation, what makes an age-friendly community? We look at what U.S. cities can do to help seniors live better.
On Point radio show, WBUR 90.9,
Click here to listen to or download the podcast
Scams directed toward the elderly
Brookline Police issue warning about scams directed toward seniors.
Click here for details.
An article by Frank Caro, chairman of
BrooklineCAN and its Livable Community Advocacy Committee. From the Brookline Greenspace Alliance's fall 2015 newsletter.
Scam alert

Facebook post from Brookline Police:
Today we have received several calls from Brookline residents, who have reported receiving suspicious calls from people claiming to be the IRS. The callers then stated that they were filing a lawsuit against the residents before asking for personal information. If you receive such a call, it is NOT the IRS, it is a scam.
Non-emergency number is 617-730-2222.
Scam alert
Tweet from Brookline Police:
Extortion SCAM from local 617 telephone #. Be wary if you receive demand for money due to "Accident" "Kidnapping," etc. Call Police for help.
Non-emergency number is 617-730-2222.
New Windows 10 scam will encrypt your files for ransom
A cautionary tale in being patient, and not skipping the line.
Details here.