Overview

Aging is often painted in shades of worry: rising healthcare costs, pension strains, and the fear of decline. But what if we shifted the frame? What if a longer, healthier life is not a societal burden but one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time?

In city halls and boardrooms, aging populations are sparking ingenuity creating jobs, reigniting markets, and inspiring progress. At the heart of this transformation are stories like EngAGE with Heart, a Novartis‑supported initiative bringing cardiovascular care into trusted community spaces. These efforts show how healthy aging can deliver economic hope, community resilience, and human potential.

Let’s explore how economic opportunity and human dignity intersect in the journey toward healthy aging and why this story belongs at the center of our future.

1. The Economic Power of Healthy Aging 

The phrase "silver economy" may sound clinical, but its reality is vibrant and full of promise. As populations age, new markets emerge—from healthcare tools to wellness services unlocking income, innovation, and value.

Consider this:

Novartis’s approach exemplifies this shift. By sponsoring Engage with Heart, they’re not just caring for community health they're fueling economic activity. Screening events create jobs, education spurs healthier living, and local health ambassadors lift community confidence. These ripple effects are powerful.

Healthy aging isn’t just about living longer it’s about living better, and economically smarter.

2. Global Momentum: From Blueprints to Local Action 

On the world stage, organizations are recalibrating aging from threat to opportunity. The World Health Organization’s “Decade of Healthy Ageing” (2021–2030) advocates age-friendly cities, policies that counteract ageism, and person-centered care all investments in economic resilience.

Yet true transformation takes root at home. That’s where local action shines:

• Cities tailor environments urban planning, transport, housing to enable older adults to stay connected, active, and contributing.
• Community organizations become hubs for health, dialogue, and coordinated services.
• Private–public partnerships merge resources, creativity, and trust to build scalable, impactful programs.

This is where Engage with Heart finds its strength: combining Novartis’s vision and funding, the Global Coalition on Aging’s strategy, and trusted local networks in Baltimore to bring real change to real lives.

3. Case Study: Engage with Heart—Economics Meets Empathy 

Engage with Heart is a powerful testament to how healthy aging can spark economic and social renewal.

• What’s happening? Launched in Baltimore in late 2023, the program brings cardiovascular screening, health education, and healthy meals into churches and senior centers. Supported by Novartis and the Global Coalition on Aging, it targets neighborhoods where heart failure disease is a leading killer—especially among Black residents.
• How it works: Trained Community Health Ambassadors, rooted in those neighborhoods, work alongside nursing students from Johns Hopkins to deliver on-site screenings blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol—and immediate feedback. Education follows within minutes. It’s not just health data—it’s trusted care delivered in familiar spaces.
• Why it matters economically:

  • Healthcare savings: Early detection and education reduce hospital visits and long-term treatment costs.
  • Job and volunteer creation: Ambassadors, healthcare students, and local volunteers gain roles, purpose, and skill development.
  • Trust building: Restoring confidence in healthcare systems encourages proactive prevention an investment with far-reaching economic dividends.
  • Food access and nutrition education: Collaborations with food networks enhance wellness while stimulating local food economies.

Reverend Dr. Terris King, who co-leads the initiative, puts it simply: “If you want to solve a problem, get the church involved.” The pandemic taught us that solutions must be built from the community outward and when they are, lives and economies flourish together.

4. Inspiring Communities, Igniting Economies

Beyond Baltimore, Engage with Heart is a model of inspiration:

• Scalable blueprints: Much like planting seeds, this community-rooted approach can bloom in cities worldwide, adapted to local needs and assets.
• Consumer confidence: Healthy, empowered older adults are active economic participants shopping, traveling, volunteering, and mentoring the next generation.
• Policy ripple effect: Success stories prove community-based, preventative care works, driving lawmakers to fund and replicate similar programs—reinforcing economic sustainability.

And leadership matters. Novartis’s involvement shows how corporate resources finance, credibility, innovation can amplify societal good. It’s not just philanthropy it’s pioneering partnership for shared economic and social value.

5. Spotlight: The Power of Community Health Ambassadors 

At the heart of the EngAGE with Heart initiative lies a group of everyday heroes Community Health Ambassadors. These individuals, recruited from within the very neighborhoods they serve, embody a powerful truth: trust and proximity builds healthcare access in ways hospitals and clinics often cannot.

Chosen for their standing in local communities, ambassadors like Creala Mickens, a retired civil servant with decades at the Social Security Administration under her belt, bring more than just credibility they bring lived experience and empathetic understanding. Every week, she reaches out across East and West Baltimore to speak with residents at community centers and churches, engaging them in heart health conversations with warmth and familiarity. The response? “Overwhelmingly positive,” she says, noting how even a hug or simple appreciation from community members reminds her of the impact of her role. 

Her colleague Kejuana Walton a deeply empathetic social worker uses her own journey of managing high blood pressure through lifestyle changes as an anchor for her outreach. Her message resonates: “If I could do it, you can too.” 

The ambassadors’ day-to-day work spans:

• Hosting fun, educational activities, such as “heart bingo,” which weave together lessons in healthy eating, exercise, and regular check-ups in an inviting, accessible format. 
• Guiding individuals through nutritional education via cooking demos, fresh food tastings (courtesy of partners like the Black Church Food Security Network and Hungry Harvest), and practical label-reading lessons.
• Accompanying participants through screening logistics, helping connect those with elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, or glucose levels to primary care or even assisting with referrals and insurance enrollment when needed.

As Michael Hodin, CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging, puts it: “The Community Health Ambassador is the centerpiece of our program.” He emphasizes that these trusted, local advocates are essential in making health access tangible—particularly for people who may not regularly interact with formal care systems yet face chronic risks like cardiovascular disease. 

In essence, Community Health Ambassadors transform healthcare from an abstract notion into something relatable, actionable, and deeply human—making it one of the most inspiring pillars of the entire healthy-aging movement.

6. Your Role in the Movement 

This isn’t just a story for city leaders or big companies it’s one for all of us.

• Citizens can advocate for healthy aging in their communities, joining local outreach or volunteering.
• Policymakers can prioritize funding preventive care and age-friendly infrastructure, saving costs while building economic strength.
• Companies can align strategies with aging markets investing in longevity, wellness, and prevention.
• Educators and professionals can train in culturally sensitive, community-first healthcare.

Healthy aging is not about the number of years we live but how those years are lived: with dignity, community, and purpose. And in that vision lies economic promise for all.

Conclusion

Aging doesn’t signal decline it heralds economic opportunity, community empowerment, and human honor. Programs like Engage with Heart backed by Novartis—show us how healthy aging can become a cornerstone of thriving economies and compassionate societies.

If this inspires you, dive deeper into the vision that laid the foundation: read “Unlocking the hidden opportunity of societal aging”. It’s your guide to reframing aging not as a burden, but as one of our greatest sources of economic and social strength.