- March 27, 2024
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A Sarasota-based think tank that studies the impact of aging on businesses and the community is moving at speeds not normally associated with its subjects.
To wit: The agency, the Institute for the Ages, which officially launched last spring, received a $1.2 million funding commitment from Sarasota County officials in July. And earlier this month the institute held a workshop, Innovation for the Ages, that drew a high-powered group of nationwide researchers, executives and government officials to town.
“The progress over the past few months has been extremely satisfying,” says Tim Dutton, the Institute's interim executive director. “This is a marker of how big this has become.”
The institute's formation rests on the fact that Sarasota County, with 30.5% of its 369,675 people 65 or older, according to 2009 U.S. Census figures, is the oldest large county in the country. That's out of 3,850 counties.
Those demographics were a magnet for people who attended the two-day workshop Nov. 9-10. “The purpose was to bring these people together,” Dutton tells Coffee Talk. “The idea is to think about how they can do the work better, faster and smarter.”
Attendees included cultural anthropologists; a representative from Hallmark; New York City Health Department officials; employees from chemical company BASF; and researchers with the Stanford Center on Longevity. Several other universities sent elderly experts to the workshop, along with RTI International, a Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based firm that partners with the institute on some projects.