Advocacy

Advancing Policies for an Age-Friendly New Hampshire

Thanks to dramatic advances in medicine, public health, and lifestyle choices, nearly half of children born today can expect to live to 100. As more of us live longer, healthier lives, New Hampshire has a powerful opportunity to advance healthy aging policies and reshape the future of our communities. 

The burgeoning growth of our state’s older population creates the opportunity to use our collective skills to impact our current policies, structures, and cultural assumptions and address the new realities of an older Granite State. Our collaborative advocacy efforts are needed to successfully make New Hampshire a state that supports its older residents. 

New Hampshire Alliance for Healthy Aging (NHAHA) Advocacy has been working since 2014 to create a more age-friendly New Hampshire. By developing a strong coalition of service organizations, state agencies, policymakers, advocates and older people themselves, NHAHA Advocacy continues to build a cohesive advocacy infrastructure that responds to the needs of and works with the strengths of NH residents. 

We need your help to continue this momentum. Together we can roll up our sleeves, envision a strong age-friendly New Hampshire and advocate for policies that support all aspects of healthy aging.

Looking Forward: NHAHA Advocacy Priorities

NHAHA Advocacy partners with New Futures to advance healthy aging policy in New Hampshire. Our collaborative advocacy efforts aim to address the unique needs of older adults and ensure that New Hampshire remains a state that supports its aging residents. 

Building on past successes, our advocacy priorities for 2024-2029 will continue to strengthen and enhance our advocacy infrastructure and promote policies that improve the health and well-being of all of us as we age in New Hampshire: 

1. A strong State Commission on Aging that advises the Governor and General Court on policy and planning related to aging in New Hampshire.
    
2. A robust System of Care for Healthy Aging in New Hampshire, implemented by the NH Department of Health and Human Services as mandated by current law.
    
3. An age-friendly New Hampshire that supports older adults and their families, providing them with a wide range of choices that advance healthy aging.
   
   
4. A deep and wide base of advocates, partners, legislative champions, engaged policy makers, and state agencies supporting the system of care, and healthy aging more broadly, across the state. 

OUR PRIORITIES

Celebrating Successes: NHAHA Advocacy Wins 

In the past five years, NHAHA Advocacy has changed the conversation about how we age. Our advocacy work has positively impacted New Hampshire policy by drawing on the expertise and lived experience of older individuals and statewide stakeholders. Successes include creating a new State Commission on Aging, reimbursement rate increases for services provided under the Choices for Independence Program (CFI), creating a fully funded System of Care for Healthy Aging, and more. 

OUR SUCCESSES