About LEAF YS

Livable/Equitable/Age Friendly Yellow Springs is a collaborative, engaged, community supported process designed to build on Yellow Springs’ strengths and resources to promote action and concrete results across Eight Domains: Outdoor Space and Buildings, Transportation, Housing, Social Participation, Respect and Social Inclusion, Civic Participation and Employment, Communication and Information, Community Support and Health Services. It is intended to build a community where people of all ages, races, incomes, and abilities can thrive. 

Our designation from AARP and the World Health Organization places us in the company of over 1,000 communities in the US and the world as a Livable/Age Friendly Community.  In 2019, Yellow Springs became the 10th community in Ohio to obtain an Age-Friendly designation from AARP.  We are the smallest such community in Ohio.

Becoming a Livable/Age Friendly Community began a process that is normally carried out over five years.  Our original intent was to complete our process in three years, as we are a small community, but the Covid pandemic stretched that to five.  We intend to complete the final step, the Action Plan and have it reviewed by the community and approved by Village Council by the middle of 2024.

From the outset, our work has been a collaborative community engagement, planning and action process built on assessing current resources and strengths (which are many), surveying the community about their views on resources, strengths, and needs related to the Eight Domains, preparing an Action Plan, and most importantly, executing and implementing (and re-assessing) the Plan.  This Process and Framework are required elements of being a Livable/Age Friendly community.

As is common in Yellow Springs, we added a unique perspective to our work, based on extensive discussions with members of the Inclusive & Resilient Yellow Springs Coalition and others.  This perspective brought our attention to issues of equity and inclusion and the barriers residents face in Yellow Springs because of high costs of housing and issues of civic participation, respect, and social inclusion.

Responsibility for implementation of the Action Plan relies on collaboration among elected leadership, public agencies,  non-profit organizations, and individuals in Yellow Springs and Greene County.

• Antonia Dosik, Encore Miller Fellow Yellow Springs Community Foundation and Project

Director of Livable/Equitable/Age Friendly Yellow Springs

• Caroline Mullin, Executive Director of the YS Senior Center

• Randi Rothman, MSW 

• Truth Garrett, community activist and expert on diversity/inclusion

• Melissa Heston, Outreach Coordinator, YS Community Foundation and liaison to YS

School District

• Alexandra Scott, Convener of the Inclusive and Resilient Yellow Springs Coalition and

Outreach and Fundraising Manager, Yellow Springs Home, Inc.

• Krista Magaw, former Executive Director of the Tecumseh Land Trust

• Len Kramer, former Encore Miller Fellow, member of the Board of YS Home Inc. and

expert on community processes.

• Florence Randolph, Yellow Springs Police Department Community Outreach Coordinator

• Ellis Jacobs, attorney, and expert on landlord/tenant issues

• Shadia Alvarez, former Executive Director of Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch

College and expert on community processes and diversity and inclusion.