IMAGE: NYC, the Interactive Map of Aging, allows visualization of local data to address unmet needs and to plan for the future.
Overview & Goals:
An open-source map of New York City’s current and projected population age 65 and older, IMAGE: NYC provides overlays of available resources, services, and amenities. Designed for government agencies, elected officials, health care and social service providers, planners, funders, and researchers, IMAGE:NYC is a critical tool to support funding, planning, advocacy and direct services.
Created by The New York Academy of Medicine and the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research/CUNY Graduate Center, this data visualization tool enables users to understand and analyze spatial and socio-demographic patterns and trends.
IMAGE: NYC leverages newly available data and technology to illustrate the interplay of multiple variables at many different geographic levels for the current and projected aging population in New York City. Grounded in the recommendations that emerged from the Academy’s 2014 report Resilient Communities: Empowering Older Adults in Disasters and Daily Life [PDF], the map was created to:
- Facilitate more informed planning and more equitable and localized deployment of resources for older people by government agencies, elected officials, health care and supportive service providers, researchers, and funders in New York City, as well as other localities where it is adapted.
- Contribute to better delivery of culturally and linguistically competent social services and health care through the ability to isolate the needs of subpopulations in a given locality.
- Catalyze connections within and between sectors, institutions, and individuals, leading to increased social cohesion which supports aging in community and community resilience.
About The New York Academy of Medicine:
The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) tackles the barriers that prevent every individual from living a healthy life. NYAM generates the knowledge needed to change the systems that prevent people from accessing what they need to be healthy such as safe and affordable housing, healthy food, healthcare and more. Through its high-profile programming for the general public, focused symposia for health professionals, and its base of dedicated Fellows and Members, NYAM engages the minds and hearts of those who also value advancing health equity to maximize health for all.
About CUNY Mapping Service:
The CUNY Mapping Service, part of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, engages with foundations, government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and other CUNY researchers to use spatial information and analysis techniques to develop and execute applied research projects.
Special acknowledgments:
IMAGE: NYC was made possible by support from The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and by the collaborative sharing of data sources by The New York City Departments for the Aging, Health and Mental Hygiene, City Planning, and Transportation, and the community-based organization, CaringKind.