Making Los Angeles the World’s Leading Region for Supporting an Aging Population | FUSE

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About Us
FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to engage communities, advance racial equity, and work more effectively for everyone.
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The FUSE Model centers around a one-year full-time public service role in city or county government and includes three primary phases from start to finish.
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FUSE Executive Fellows and Alumni are experienced leaders committed to advancing equity through action-oriented partnerships with government agencies.
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FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to engage communities, advance racial equity, and work more effectively for everyone.
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The power of government. The experience of community. The impact of new ideas. Together we can build better systems
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The FUSE Model centers around a one-year full-time public service role in city or county government and includes three primary phases from start to finish.
Executive Fellowship Program
FUSE Executive Fellows and Alumni are experienced leaders committed to advancing equity through action-oriented partnerships with government agencies.
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Thanks to the generous support and close partnerships of our funders and supporters, we have been able to deepen our impact on issues that matter the most to communities and the government agencies that serve them.
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Los Angeles County is already home to a large population of older adults; by 2030, more than 2 million people — more than 18 percent of the L.A. County population — will be older adults. This wave of demographic change prompted local leaders to create a program called Purposeful Aging Los Angeles (PALA). Working with public- and private-sector leadership, resources, and strategies, PALA distilled its work into a plan based on 34 recommendations called the Age-Friendly Action Plan, which provides a framework for leading a multi-year effort to improve the lives of today’s older adults. Tasked with developing a strategy for implementing these recommendations, L.A. County Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS), more specifically its Area Agency on Aging (AAA), is working to establish an infrastructure and systems that will support an age-friendly future for the region.

To support this work, WDACS will partner with FUSE Executive Fellow Andrew West for one year to implement these recommendations, leading a multi-year effort to improve the lives of today’s older adults, ultimately transforming Los Angeles into one of the most age-friendly areas in the world.

ANDREW WEST is a researcher and strategist focused on developing and promoting policies and practices that build age-friendly communities. He consults with nonprofit organizations and local governments on aging services and healthy aging strategies. Previously he served as project manager for Age-Friendly Albuquerque, a citywide initiative that developed an age-friendly action plan and earned Albuquerque an age-friendly designation from AARP and the World Health Organization.

Andrew holds a B.A. in communication studies from UCLA, an M.A. in communication studies from Cal State Northridge, and a Ph.D. in health communication from the University of New Mexico.

2021-2022 | Los Angeles County - Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services

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