SACO — A volunteer group committed to make Saco an “age friendly” community is looking for volunteers to help meet the needs of seniors and make Saco a great place to live.

The Saco Age Friendly Steering Committee formed last year and is working with guidance through AARP with the goal to optimize opportunities for health, safety and engagement and remove barriers that prevent seniors from remaining in their homes while they age.

These goals will be accomplished with support from the city, collaboration with community ornganizations and the work of volunteers, said Mayor Ron Michaud at a community meeting at Thornton Academy on Thursday night.

“We want to create a community for a lifetime, that’s the goal,” he said.

In the fall, a survey was sent out to local seniors to help determine the needs of local seniors, and Analytic Insight compiled the results.

Steering committee member Jean Saunders gave an overview of the findings of the survey, which received about 400 responses.

Most of the respondents rated Saco an excellent or good place to live and wanted to remain in the city as they aged. About 75 percent of respondents said information and resources to support aging were not easy to find.

The majority of respondents reported that finding trustworthy home repair contractors was important.

Though the majority of respondents rated home maintenance and wellness and fitness classes to be services they were interested in, needs appeared to change as people got older, as those 80 and older rated caregiving services and home-delivered meals as services they were interested in.

Saunders said the committee is working to become a nonprofit agency.

The committee recently acquired office space in the annex building behind City Hall. To contact the committee, call 808-2021 or email [email protected].

Work has begun to help meet the needs of the elderly.

A home handyman committee has been started to work on creating a resource for seniors who need home repair services, and volunteers are working with the city’s Recreation Department and Atlantic Heights retirement community to being a monthly, healthy cooking class.

Audience members were given forms to fill out and list areas in which they were interested in helping out.

Michaud urged seniors in the audience to volunteer.

“All of this is going to continue to be a work in progress,” said Michaud. “However, none of this will happen unless we all step up and make it happen.”

Communities are more successful when members work together to achieve its goals, he said.

“Reach out a hand to help each other,” he said.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].