University President Steven Knapp and Mayor Vincent Gray convened a city-wide group devoted to improving the lives of the elderly Thursday.

The District is the first in the nation to launch programs with AARP and the World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Environments Programme, as part of an effort to improve living standards and engage more elderly residents in every corner of the city.

“We are really dependent on a thriving capital city here. This is our home,” Knapp said. “As a citizen of the District of Columbia, I think we have a responsibility to help out and do what we can.”

Knapp will co-chair the Age-Friendly D.C. Task Force with Beatriz Otero, the deputy mayor for health and human services. About two dozen other members, representing organizations including the American Psychiatric Association, the D.C. Government’s Office of Disability Rights and the D.C. Hispanic Chamber, were also sworn in.

The task force will span three years, though it has yet to release a timeline for specific goals.

The issues include: safe walkways and parks, reliable transportation, affordable housing, employment options and social inclusion.

While Knapp said the issue may seem distant to college students and professors, he said faculty and students from GW would benefit from helping to grow the initiative.

“Mainly we bring our expertise to this role, which I think is something we do in a number of different areas,” Knapp said. “We actually give a lot of advice to the city on health issues and other things.”

Knapp pointed to the Institute of Spiritual Health’s research on end-of-life issues and medical school research on dementia.

He also pointed to the leadership of Gail Kohn, the coordinator of the program and a GW alumna. In 2007, Kohn was the executive director of an elderly friend organization called Capitol Hill Village, which connects volunteers and residents to help them age in their house rather than a nursing home.

That project inspired the Foggy Bottom West End Village, which opened this year just off campus.

Gray said that program was a precursor to the vision he has for the “D.C. Age Friendly City,” and said he hopes D.C. will meet its goals by 2017.

About one in four seniors living in D.C. were living in poverty, the highest rate in the country, according to the most recent Census Bureau statistics.