Area Agency on Aging 1-B is Now AgeWays

We’ve been known as the Area Agency on Aging 1-B since our founding 50 years ago, in 1974, but several factors made us think it was time for a change:

• Area Agency on Aging 1-B was very bureaucratic sounding. It did not reflect the warm, people-focused quality of our organization.
• Area Agency on Aging 1-B was a mouthful and sometimes confusing. It was difficult for people to remember and — often — even say
• We feel AgeWays better reflects what we do and how we help people. We believe it will help people better understand what we do and how we can help. Ultimately, we hope it will let us reach and assist more of the older adults, people with disabilities, and family caregivers who need us.

Yes! We are still an Area Agency on Aging. Ageways Nonprofit Senior Services is a “Doing Business As” (DBA), rather than our legal name, and our legal name will remain Area Agency on Aging 1-B. As you can see, the Area Agency on Aging 1-B name is still a part of our logo!

Our role and the programs and services we provide as an Area Agency on Aging will not change. We will remain the Area Agency on Aging that represents and serves Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair and Washtenaw counties.

No. Programs, personnel, the structure of our organization, and our relationship with our participants, providers, vendors, and network partners will be unchanged. Only our public-facing name/logo will change, along with some of our contact information: our website URL (AgeWays.org), and our email address domain (ageways.org).

We developed a detailed process that included voices and input from different demographics, groups and audiences from around our six-county region. Getting feedback from a variety of people, playing different roles (seniors, family caregivers, and aging sector professionals) was important to us. We used an unbiased outside consultant to help us conduct focus groups with various constituent groups and get the feedback we needed when choosing a new name.

If you have questions about the rebranding process, you can contact the staff member at the agency with whom you usually work. Members of the agency’s Communications staff are also available:

Kathleen Yanik, Senior Communications Manager

kyanik@aaa1b.org
(248) 606-5798

Jenny Jarvis, Chief Communications & Strategy Officer

jjarvis@aaa1b.org
(248) 752-0630

Nothing about our programs or services have changed. You’ll still receive the same services as you did before the name change. The people, providers and staff members you work with will be unchanged. You will still see the same faces.

We will continue to work with the same service providers. You will interact with the same people you did before the change.

The name change won’t have any impact on the staff members or volunteers you’ve been working with at our organization. Their phone numbers will stay the same as well. Staff members will have a slightly different email address. Their address will now end with ageways.org instead of aaa1b.org. For example, jdoe@aaa1b.org will become jdoe@ageways.org. Any email sent to an email address ending with aaa1b.org will automatically forward to the new address, so the change will be seamless.

You will not need to fill out any new applications or documents due to the name change.