Therese Ellery, Rose Community Foundation Senior Program Officer – Aging and Encore Network leadership team member shared news about a transformative new program:
We are excited to announce the launch of a new Rose Community Foundation partner initiative, Changing the Narrative, a cutting-edge awareness and communications campaign to create a more just, inclusive and age-integrated Colorado.
Like people across the country, Coloradans are living longer and healthier lives. Yet research conducted by FrameWorks Institute over the last three years shows that aging is misunderstood in America, that ageist and negative stereotypes abound and that the misconceptions create obstacles to productive practices and policies. By changing the way people talk and think about aging in our own community, Changing the Narrative will set the foundation for more productive and age-integrated policies and practices that leverage the strengths and talents of older people, and systems that support wellbeing in later life.
To achieve these goals, the campaign will:
- Reach targeted audiences and the general public with research-based framing in earned and social media campaigns
- Train advocates, key influencers and others in research-based framing strategies, messages and communications tools
- Mobilize individuals of all ages to use these strategies in their own networks and to identify ageist messages and stereotypes
With its access to groups including skilled volunteers and advocates, AmeriCorps Encore members, and the Colorado Encore Network, Boomers Leading Change will be a key partner in this project. It will coordinate a group of people trained to confront and educate around ageist attitudes and practices and connect people who are interested in advancing an age-integrated society to initiative activities.
The project will be managed by Janine Vanderburg, who brings over three decades of experience in community and social change. Janine is a certified FrameWorks Institute Reframing Aging Trainer, a founding member of the Colorado Encore Network and a member of the national Encore.org Network leadership team. She served two terms on the Denver Commission on Aging, where she led strategic planning to help Denver become an age-friendly community.
Changing the Narrative builds on five years of national work that Rose Community Foundation has been involved with eight other foundations –AARP, Archstone Foundation, Endowment for Health, The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Retirement Research Foundation, and The Scan Foundation — and the eight leading aging organizations, including AARP, American Federation for Aging Research, American Geriatrics Society, American Society on Aging, Gerontological Society of America, Grantmakers in Aging, National Council on Aging and the National Hispanic Council on Aging.
You will be hearing much more about this partner initiative in coming months. We are currently inviting other Colorado community partners and funders to join this campaign. If you would like to join the movement to fight ageism by participating in training, learning how to identify ageism or simply learn more about what we are doing, fill in this form to be placed on our mailing list.
Contact: Janine Vanderburg
Published: January 31, 2018