Courtesy of Cynthia Dibiase

Age-Friendly Scarborough is beginning a speaker series this year. Age-Friendly Scarborough is a town sub-committee aimed at making the community livable for residents of all ages.

“Scarborough residents over time have identified a number of issues they face with remaining in their homes and community,” said Cynthia Dibiase, Seniors Program coordinator for Scarborough. “The speaker series hopes to help address these concerns by offering information and connecting residents to local resources.”

The first event will be “Aging Safely in your Home,” a panel presentation on Monday, Feb. 27. from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Scarborough Community Services Hub at 418 Payne Road. The presentation discusses easy low- to no-cost devices, fixes, and adaptive strategies for residents to age safely at home. The panel features experts from The Iris Network, Scarborough Fire Department, Mobility One, and other local agencies.

“We will have five different panelists talking about different strategies and devices to help people age safely in their homes,” said Dibiase, seniors program coordinator in Scarborough. “Each presenter will have a few minutes to talk then there will be time for questions and gathering afterwards.”

The presentation is designed for people in any living situation, whether an owner or renter, in an apartment, a house, assisted-living complex, mobile home, condo, etc.

The event is free with no pre-registration, and light refreshments will be served.

Other upcoming events in the speaker series include internet safety for all, which will be held at the Scarborough Public Library with the University of Southern Maine Cybersecurity Ambassadors at 10 a.m. on Friday March 3 and 31.

“We have two dates set aside where we will have a group of (USM) students,” Dibiase said. “They will be over at Scarborough Public Library doing lessons on internet safety. The topics will range from keeping your passwords safe or keeping your internet network safe.”

The first session on computer and internet safety is “Phishing, Identity Protection, Social Media Safety, and Everyday Home Cyber Security.” Students from USM’s Cybersecurity Ambassadors program and their professor Dr. Lori Sussman will be the speakers.

The speaker series will feature different speakers each month. The events will switch locations back and forth between the Community Services Hub and the library to reach more people.

Scarborough has been designated as an age-friendly community since 2019. “Scarborough joined Maine’s network of Age-Friendly cities and states in December of 2019, and a steering committee was formed at that time to review the results of a community survey and develop a three-year action plan,” Dibiase said. “The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the progress of this work. The volunteer committee has recently reconvened.”

“This past fall, the age-friendly committee was reformed and began working with a Lifelong Communities Fellow, Karen Campbell, through UMaine’s Center on Aging,” she said. “This entitled the committee to receive a micro-grant from the Maine Community Foundation to be used for a lifelong communities project. After reviewing a short list of proposed projects, the committee chose to develop an ongoing speaker series.”

Age-Friendly Scarborough is a volunteer committee and all residents are welcome to join their monthly meetings at the Community Services Hub. Residents can reach out to Cynthia Dibiase at cdibiase@scarboroughmaine.org to join their email list and receive notifications of upcoming meetings and agendas.