City of New York’s Cabinet for Older New Yorkers is a Model for Age-Inclusive Policy Design and Implementation

Abstract

The global population is aging with adults living longer and declining birth rates creating major implications for policy and infrastructure. The City of New York is cultivating an “Age-Inclusive” model that considers the needs of older adults today while laying the groundwork for tomorrow. Focused on cross-agency collaboration that approaches problem solving and design through the multi-dimensionality of every-day life, New York City Mayor Eric Adams introduced the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers (“Cabinet”) as a novel approach to imagining, designing and implementing policy, structural and systemic changes. Dozens of reforms have been developed and rolled out through the Cabinet, impacting the lives of thousands of New Yorkers across generations. The Cabinet is a model for policy design that can be replicated across cities and issue areas.