Responding to Local Needs by Mobilizing Community Assets: Age-Friendly Community Initiatives During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Age-friendly community initiatives (AFCIs) strive to make localities better for long and healthy lives by fostering improvements across social, physical, and service environments. Despite the heightened need for community supports during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, very little research has addressed the work of AFCIs in the context of this crisis. We aimed to develop theory on how AFCI core teams have contributed to community responses during the pandemic, as well as what contexts have influenced the initiatives' ability to contribute. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: As part of a multiyear, community-partnered study on the development of philanthropically supported initiatives in northern New Jersey, we conducted qualitative interviews with 8 AFCI core teams during the winter of 2020-2021. The interviews focused on the leaders' efforts at that time, with probing questions concerning enabling factors for their community responses. We analyzed the data using an inductive coding process encompassing open, axial, and subcoding. RESULTS: The analysis indicated four distinct roles of AFC core groups: good community partner, creator, advocate, and communications broker. We further found that AFC leaders primarily drew on three types of capital-human, social, and tangible-to enact these roles, oftentimes in cumulative ways. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: We interpret our study's findings and their implications by integrating insights from theories of social impact. We further highlight the importance of continued research on community-centered approaches to promote aging in community during times of societal crisis, and otherwise.

Teaching Anti-Racism in Gerontology: An Interactive Program of Recognition, Self-Work, Pedagogy, and Action

Older adults with intersecting identities as persons of color experience disparities in health and well-being due to racism in individual and structural spheres, which have been amplified by health, economic, and social consequences of COVID-19. We can begin the work to reduce these inequities by training scholars and practitioners to disrupt the systems within which we work that relegate advantages and disadvantages throughout the life course and in later life by racial groups. This interactive symposium presents resources on anti-racist gerontological education and provides an opportunity to engage critically with peers in all stages of their careers and anti-racism journeys who are interested in integrating anti-racism into their teaching. The first presenter introduces conversations to begin anti-racist pedagogy and assumptions to dismantle. The second presenter describes cultural humility as an essential step towards self-awareness and critical self-reflection for educators and practitioners. The third presenter presents how anti-racist pedagogy, a teaching approach that combines racial content, pedagogy, and organizing, may be applied to gerontology education. Fourth, an example will be presented from an online course module developed to guide Master of Social Work students toward recognizing racial disparities in aging services systems and identifying concrete suggestions for improvement. Finally, strategies for curriculum design will be presented with examples from Public Health education. This symposium is designed to include ample time for group discussion on this critical and under-addressed area of teaching in gerontology across disciplines, such that participants can better connect with others to build awareness, competency, and resources.

Teaching Anti-Racism in an Aging Services Course: Lessons Developed and Lessons Learned

Despite high levels of racial disparities in health and well-being among older adults, curricula addressing how aging services systems contribute to or work to ameliorate these disparities are scarce. This paper introduces a module on inequalities and anti-racism in aging developed for an online course on aging services within a Master of Social Work program. First, materials that help students identify and understand racial inequalities in aging and in the programs that serve older adults are presented. Next, students are introduced to the applied context of how COVID-19 has exacerbated these inequalities. Finally, students critically engage in reflections and assessments of the available resources within aging services and advocacy organizations, providing recommendations for how these systems may better incorporate anti-racist practices. Challenges and opportunities will be discussed, including piloting this module in a virtual, asynchronous environment.