Eric Cash
The first, most important thing to know about STL Village (314-802-0275, stlvillage.org) is that it’s not a place—it’s a network. It’s also part of a larger national movement. “There are now about 125 villages,” says Arthur Culbert, one of STL Village’s founders and vice chair of the board. “As an example, we’ve modeled our own village after Lincoln Park Village in Chicago.”
When STL Village began offering services in early June, it became St. Louis’ first representative of the Village to Village Network, the national nonprofit, member-driven collective of organizations that help people over 50 years old “age in place” in their own houses and neighborhoods. It’s not meant to replace retirement communities altogether, but rather to offer an alternative, Culbert says.
STL Village’s footprint includes the Central West End, the West End, Skinker-DeBaliviere, DeBaliviere Place, Academy, Fountain Park, Hamilton Heights, Visitation Park, Vandeventer, and Lewis Place, plus parts of Clayton and University City. The boundaries are deliberately drawn to be inclusive and diverse, Culbert says, adding that he hopes it will provide a template for other communities.
Volunteers drive people to appointments, do yard work, pet-sit, provide companionship, and call to check in. Young volunteers are key—technological help is one of the most requested services, and the movement emphasizes the importance of intergenerational relationships. But members alsohelp other members. And if there’s a request that volun-teers can’t fulfill, the STL Village office provides a list of vetted service providers.
STL Village offers ser-vices 24/7 by phone or on-line; annual memberships are $600 per person and $840 for a household. It also offers a Member-Plus Program for St. Louisans who can’t afford those rates. “We have already started raising funds to help us assist low- and moderate-income people become members of the village,” says Madeline Franklin, STL Village’s executive director.
The village movement is not just about getting prescriptions filled or changing light bulbs, she emphasizes: “We want them to do things in a way that is socially connected.” This is why a core part of STL Village’s programming is a calendar of events that includes yoga and chess classes, tours of the Saint Louis Art Museum, and tutorials on financial literacy.
“My mother is 87, and she is very active and works out every day at the Y, but she has one friend—everybody else is gone,” says Maggy Malcolm, STL Village’s marketing chair. “Physically, she is fine, but she feels the need to be needed, and she likes to do things for people.”
Many of STL Village’s younger members see their future selves echoed in their aging parents’ experiences. “I think most of us have a story about how we dealt with or argued with an aging relative or friends, and how this brings the village home to all of us,” says Sally Nikolajevich, co-chair of the board.
She mentions someone who’d been volunteering for 20-plus hours a week, but hadn’t joined. Then, while walking her dog, the woman fell down and broke her wrist. After a police officer took her to the emergency department, she walked home by herself. “They may think they don’t need the village,” Nikolajevich says, “until something like that happens.”
Pharmacists’ Emerging Role
“In Missouri, over the past couple of years, pharmacists have been able to provide medication therapy services,” says Dr. Amy Tiemeier, associate professor of pharmacy practice atSt. Louis College of Pharmacy. “They can have contracts with physicians that allow them to actually manage certain disease states.” In some cases, they can monitor patients with diabetes and hypertension, making adjustments when necessary. Some hospitals even contract with pharmacists to oversee prescriptions in the hospital.
