2011 was a great year for the Chicago Bridge. Let’s celebrate by sharing all of our success. Below lists areas of our work, growth, and success in 2011.

 A big thanks to all the volunteers of Chicago Bridge including the leadership core past and present, all the event coordinators, the sponsers who provided us food and meeting space for our events, the Chicago Bridge blog writers and editors, the mentors and the mentees, all the members who posted thoughts, discussions, jobs and information in the field of aging on the Chicago Bridge Google Group.

Leadership Review

We started the year with the first every Year End Event held in January 2011: Organized by Alix Burns and the Support and Social Group of the Chicago Bridge. The event..

• Had about 40 people attend the event last January that was held at the Irish American Heritage Center
• Celebrated all the hard work that participants put in to make the Chicago Bridge a success in 2010
• Had four generations of Chicago Bridge leadership at this event
• 2011 marked a year for new leaders of the Chicago Bridge. Learn about the leadership at http://www.thechicagobridge.org/leadership-opportunities/

Membership & Google Group Review

• 499 members total on the Chicago Bridge Google Group in 2011
• 103 new members added in 2011
• 30 new “friends of the Chicago Bridge” added in 2011
• In 2011, over 400 posts were made to the Chicago Bridge Google Group

Website, Blog & Social Media Review

• There were 10,480 visits which included 6,678 visitors to the Chicago Bridge website http://www.thechicagobridge.org/
• The top visited page of the website was the Membership Page where are new members sign up.
• 55 blog articles from 20 authors and 6 editors were published in 2011- Topics included Policy and Aging, Elder Law, Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia, Senior Housing, Creative Arts Therapies, Medicare and much more.
• The three most viewed blog posts of our website included; 355 views of Kristen Pavle’s article “National Health Reform: The Affordable Care Act, Includes Great Benefits for Older Adults;“ 284 views of Eric Parker’s “Seven things to expectfrom a Nursing Home;” 275 views of Jaimie Robinson’s post “Early Detection: The good the bad and the big questions”
• 100 people LIKE the Chicago Bridge Facebook page- if you haven’t yet, find us at The Chicago Bridge in Facebook groups or click here
• Our Linkedin Group Page grew from 73 members to 204 (131 increase) in 2011- join us on Linkedin today!

Mentorship Program Review

• Launched 2nd cohort with 13 Mentorship Matches (13 Mentors and 13 Mentees)
• Streamlined application process and introduced initial launch event at start of Program
• Kristen Pavle and Gayle Shier presented at the American Society on Aging conference.
• Shared Mentorship Program materials with other emerging aging professional groups across the country for program development/replication purposes
• Recruited 2 new Mentorship Program Coordinators (Lyndsey Anton and Emily Shubek) to assist with Program coordination and implementation for cohort 3 and beyond

Events Review

• The Chicago Bridge members had the opportunity to meet once a month
• 8 educational events including topics like Medicare, creative arts, learning from seasoned professional and older adults, caregiving, and multiculturalism in aging were held for all members to attend
• The Annual Leadership Launch with Resume review was held for the fourth year
• Two social events offered members a change to mingle and have some fun!

Creativity and Aging Special Interest Group

• Launched in 2011 as a way to for interested Chicago Bridge members and persons in the field of aging and creative arts community to exchange ideas, network, support one another’s work, collaborate, and help connect the field aging to the arts and the arts to aging.
• Held planning meetings throughout 2011
• Started a special Chicago Bridge Creativity and Aging Google Group
• Plans to build a resources list for creativty and aging resources on the Chicago Bridge Website