This is the only web page designed for the sole purpose of allowing individuals of all ages and their caregivers to age in place, age with dignity, age with purpose, and age with security in an elder friendly environment. This page identifies quality of life issues as it helps prepare communities and neighborhoods for the aging of their populations.

Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. specializes in looking for solutions to the challenges associated with the normal aging process and with the existence of impediments in the performance of activities of daily living. Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. provides technical assistance to corporations, government agencies, not for profit organizations and private individuals in developing cost effective methods to address a variety of frailty issues.

One example of the innovative approaches Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. has developed for its customers is the Access Ready: Communities for Life program. Access Ready: Community for Life program was born because of the need to address transportation services to an ever increasing number of individuals who found themselves dependent on others once they lost their ability to drive or encountered physical impediments. Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. identified the problem not as the inability to drive; the problem was the designs of our towns and cities that create invisible barriers, making individuals prisoners of their homes. The solution was to identify and remove structural and zoning barriers which exist in the city or town and which prevent that person from walking to the grocery store, going to the restaurant or visiting a doctor.

Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. believes that the traditional way of dealing with individuals' frailty level is not to make that person more dependent, but to find new ways to support their independence. Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. offers consultation services to government entities, not for profit organizations and corporations to address limited resources, the ever growing numbers of people in need of services and the finite number of workers willing to work in this field.

Access Ready: Communities for Life is one of the Aging in place programs developed by Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. a private organization specializing in the needs of older adults and in individuals with limitations in their activities of daily living.

• The founder: Dr. Gema G. Hernández, the founder of Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. and Access Ready: Communities for Life program is the former Secretary of the Department of Elder Affairs in the State of Florida, a professor and management consultant to many organizations nationwide and a caregiver for her parents for 18 years. Dr. Hernandez established Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. consulting firm to provide alternatives to nursing homes and to facilitate the creation of an elder friendly environment nationwide in which the private corporation understands the unique needs of its mature customers and uses that knowledge for entrepreneurial ideas to expand their businesses and to carve a niche for their companies in the mature adult market.
• The services: Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. offers a variety of services to three distinct markets: corporations, government, not for profit organizations, and private individuals. The services are tailor made to the needs of each customer. Services range from cultural competence training sessions to staff, board of directors and senior level employees, strategic management planning sessions, development of marketing and/or social targeting services to older adults, to the design and implementation of Managed Long Term Care programs which integrate acute and chronic care services, effective advocacy and lobbying efforts. For more information about each of the services please click here
• Accessibility Ready: Communities for Life Program is designed to help communities prepare for the aging of their residents and to deal with the physical challenges other residents face. The program focuses on maintaining maximum independence for everyone from the children to the elders so they can live in the community they love for life. Access Ready: Communities for Life program was first introduced by Dr. Gema Hernández as part of her Elder Ready Community Initiative Program. At the time of her departure from the Department of Elder Affairs, a total of 39 communities in Florida adopted the concept. Access Ready: Communities for Life program has several phases leading to the identification of the degree of readiness each community possesses to deal with the aging of their populations. Using the Access Ready: Communities for Life assessment tool developed by Dr. Gema G. Hernández, community volunteers begin evaluating the community's infrastructure and identifying gaps and barriers that will prevent individuals from aging in place in their own neighborhoods with the relatives and neighbors they know. Because of differences in density, frailty of the populations and existing land use patterns, Dr. Hernández has created three different types of assessment tools, each addressing the special needs of the different populations.

Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc. is a minority owned firm with multicultural and multilingual staff ready to serve you. To find out whether or not your community is a Community for Life or to receive training, on site consultation or any of our other services please contact

Aging & Cultural Consultants, Inc.

Tallahassee, Fla. 32309

Phone: 850-894-9167
Fax: 850-893-0646