Community Capacity Building
Mindful Aging Project (MAP) is an initiative to bring immigrant elders from diverse communities together for socialization, personal well-being, greater serenity and health through community and meditation gardening activities. As part of a community partnership project, MAP will use simple and practical approaches to address both elderly care and environmental issues. MAP will train and provide access to a group of elderly immigrants each year, which will allow the participants completion to be voluntarily involved in developing their own gardens in their neighborhoods individually or in groups. The training integrating both holistic (physical, mental and social) health education and traditional community gardening principles will encompass teaching environmental sustainability, enhancing Earth’s life-support systems by bringing the participants to a closer connection with the Earth. The long term vision of MAP is to develop a self-sustaining multi-year commitment project with new yearly recruitments of qualified elderly immigrants for environmental stewardship and better quality of life and values.