Aging Dynamics Turns 10: A Story of Bridge Building, People + Place, and Partnership

In 2026, Aging Dynamics turns 10.

This milestone is a moment of gratitude. We are deeply thankful to the organizations, collaborators, community members, and partners who have worked alongside us over the past decade. Aging Dynamics exists because of partnership, and this anniversary is about honoring the relationships, learning, and shared purpose that have shaped the work.

It’s also an opportunity to tell the story behind Aging Dynamics more personally, through the lens of why it was created and what it was meant to make possible.

Where it began

For founder Rachel B. Cohen, the seeds were planted early. From starting a recycling service for friends and family in seventh grade to serving as a youth advisor on a community planning board in high school, she was drawn to the idea that communities should be shaped by the people in them..

Rachel grew up in an Army family, which meant moving often and experiencing many different types of communities without ever fully putting down roots. Living and thriving in constant transition sparked a lifelong curiosity about Home: what makes a place feel like home? What helps people connect? And what makes it possible for someone to feel like they belong and establish roots in a community? 

She became especially interested in how physical design influences belonging and quality of life. Access to parks and ease of navigating streets and sidewalks, places to explore creativity, , and even the direction a home faces can shape whether people cross paths, build relationships, and feel connected or whether they feel isolated.

What became clear

Rachel’s career followed that same curiosity. Over 30 years, she worked in aging, housing, public health, health care, social services, community development, and food systems. She worked for non profits, for profits, government agencies and universities. She intentionally moved between sectors and types of organizations to better understand the different systems and how they each influence whether communities thrive.

And as her experience grew, a pattern became impossible to ignore: communities are deeply interconnected, but the systems meant to support them often aren’t.

Organizations were working hard, but often in silos. People cared deeply about their communities, but their work rarely connected across sectors. Plans were created, but not always carried forward. Funding oftenrewarded quick outputs instead of building long-term community capacity and sustainability. Over time, that disconnect became frustrating, not because there wasn’t good work happening, but because it wasn’t always supported in a way that allowed meaningful change to take hold.

Rachel describes seeing communities like a tapestry of “multi-colored threads woven together.” Her background in social work and neighborhood planning, with a specialization in aging, reinforced this perspective. Communities are shaped by both people and place, and those threads cannot be separated.

Yet in each of her previous roles working for other companies and organizations, she became increasingly frustrated being able to only work on one thread at a time.

Starting Aging Dynamics

In 2016, Rachel took the leap and founded Aging Dynamics to create a  different kind of container for the work she knew was needed in the world.

She has shared that she could never find a place to work where she truly fit. She was either focusing just on people or just on place. She could see how much stronger communities could be if sectors worked together, but she couldn’t always demonstrate that across organizations in the way she knew was needed.

So she established Aging Dynamics to do just that: to intentionally build bridges and make the interconnected approach visible and practical.

It wasn’t just a decision to start a business. It was a decision to build a model that could hold the work she believed in, and to prove that collaboration across sectors isn’t just a concept, it’s a practice.

A mission-driven firm, by design

Aging Dynamics was intentionally designed to operate with mission and values at the center.

While Aging Dynamics is a for-profit firm, it was created with the purpose of redefining what that can mean. We are both values centered and mission driven and we live those ideals not just put them on a website. We do this by showing up for our clients with honesty and humility; pricing our work based on effort and results; and being flexible and creative when situations are dynamic. The goal has never been to be a firm that “checks boxes” or produces reports that sit on shelves. It was built to support people doing difficult, meaningful work and to do it in a way that reflects integrity, trust, curiosity, and inclusion.

That commitment also extends inward.

Aging Dynamics was designed to be a people-centered workplace that supports those who work there with standards that encourage a high quality of life. The belief is simple: if we are helping communities build environments that are welcoming and supportive, then our own workplace should embody that as well. We prioritize quality of life as defined by each individual, respect boundaries and comfort zones, and create flexibility in how people contribute, whether behind the scenes or in more visible roles. We also recognize that support must be tangible. This means striving to compensate people fairly for their work, being mindful of the economic realities people are navigating, contributing toward health care access when possible, and sharing success when the firm is doing well. We believe that people should feel valued, supported, and able to sustain themselves while doing meaningful work. When the people doing the work feel cared for and respected, the work itself becomes more thoughtful, sustainable, and impactful.

That culture matters. It makes it possible to show up consistently with care, clarity, and respect, and to build and sustain strong teams.

What became possible

Over the past decade, Aging Dynamics has been shaped by the partnerships it has been part of and the lessons learned through real work in real communities.

Aging Dynamics has had the opportunity to work with a wide range of partners: mission-driven nonprofits, local governments, coalitions, developers, funders, and community leaders. In each setting, the work looks different, but the intention remains the same: to help people work together across differences, stay connected through change, and move forward with purpose.

In practice, that can mean bringing people together who have never worked together before. It can mean helping groups navigate challenging conversations and find shared direction. It can mean designing engagement that is accessible and welcoming, so people can participate in ways that work for their lives.

Over time, one of the clearest lessons has been that impact is rarely created through one meeting or one plan. It is created through relationships, clarity, and follow-through, and it grows when people feel like they belong in the process.

Aging Dynamics has helped partners build action plans and strategies, launch programs, shape community spaces, and strengthen collaboration in ways that extend beyond any single project. The goal is always the same: to build capacity and shared ownership, so communities and organizations can carry the work forward long after the engagement ends.

A decade shaped by change

The last ten years have also made something else clear: communities and organizations do not operate linearly.

Priorities shift. Funding changes. Leadership transitions happen. Unexpected events reshape what’s needed. The COVID pandemic, in particular, underscored how quickly systems can be stretched and how rapidly plans can change. It also reinforced the importance of staying grounded in trust, flexibility, and shared purpose.

Aging Dynamics has evolved in response to these realities. Not by trying to do more, but by refining how to support partners through uncertainty and change, and how to build flexible approaches while staying anchored in what matters.

Looking ahead

As Aging Dynamics enters its next decade, this anniversary is a reminder of why the work exists: to strengthen communities by strengthening collaboration, inclusion, connection, and the capacity to move from intention to action.

We are grateful to everyone who has been part of this first decade. Thank you for the trust, the partnership, and the shared belief that communities can be places where people of all ages and abilities can live with dignity, belonging, and connection.