Key Insights
Bottlenecks
Opportunities
Aging Spotlight Map
US Workforce
Federal Program Limitations
Social Security Administration Ticket to Work program supports career development for Social Security disability beneficiaries age 18 through 64 who want to work. Opportunity to expand to older workers?
WA has a higher minimum wage than many states, so some government programs pay much better in WA than in lower-wage states. But higher minimum wage also means they cannot take as many participants in the program.
Growing need among people that are "over-incomed" for government programs.
Placements are limited to nonprofit and public sector. Wish they could work with private sector. Can't help people get jobs in the private sector beyond directing them to appropriate training.
Challenge, government is locked to minimum wage for on the job training.
The only federal program serves 40K and there are 3M unemployed older workers right now.
Warn Notices, large layoffs have to let the state know and have to create a retraining program to get them their next jobs.
Government is not set up for remote training. Much less remote work or remote operations.
Cultural Attitude
With the pandemic & working remotely maybe that means instead of retiring I could work in the morning from home.
Cultural acceptance of the older worker in the workplace is getting better but there is a long way to go.
There needs to be a lot of reframing of attitudes, especially because we don’t have enough people to fill jobs.
Environment
Our workforce is not just a challenge but it is a crisis. And in the health care space it directly affects quality of patient care.
Right now we don’t have enough people for all our jobs, 10.M job openings, vs. number unemployed we don’t have enough people to fill jobs.
Not enough people are coming into the workforce. Many older people are leaving the workforce. The middle is not enough to sustain it.
Employer Led Programs
Employer Programs
In a program that would benefit older workers. Employers are the primary consumer of the product. Needs to be addressed from the demand side.
If the apprenticeship is run by the employer then the employer is given control of the curriculum. If the community college is doing the curriculum then less control.
Finding what skills are needed in a particular position. Company is using training to increase skills for their employees, so use it for apprenticeships/learn by doing types jobs as well.
Employer side is the place to start. They were willing to partner with us, create a credential for the employee who sticks around for 2 years, they are willing to invest in training and fit a life long paradigm.
Many green lights come from the CEO, top down, many times there is push back from the legal department. Programs only get respect if its foundationally aligned to the company's culture and brand.
Education needed. Many employers don’t know the turnover is so low with older adults. Employers with turnover problems, need to learn that older workers have way less turnover.
Older job seekers need training, very often employers want to do the training, but need to disperse it to the rest of the company, and need help creating trainings and scaling the knowledge.
Employers care about the sticking power of the employee and a long term sustainable supply of workers. Meaning invest in pipeline, divest from right now problems. To invest in the pipeline an employer would need to hire a team of people to support the apprenticeship workers.
Employer Context
It takes time to build relationships with employers then connect people to jobs.
Employers are getting workforce fatigue, because they have so many groups approach them with the same training and development options.
From COVID we don’t know the full employment data yet, but the employers have a better understanding of that information.
Employee Resource Group (ERG) started around race, ethnicity, women in tech, LGBTQ. We are seeing more slowly growing, and ERG for Oder adults is happening organically and employers are confident that they are allowed to create them.
The talent shortage is cyclical, it will go up and down. The increase interest in diversity hiring, seems less cyclical and hopefully here to stay.
Employer Support For Older Workers
Intergenerational Workforce
Promising innovation: Papa. Created a business model that marries, older adults with younger adults.
How do companies foster a 5 generation workforce.
Unexpected benefits of working with older adults in classrooms, gave groups more energy & support, sparked new ideas & new discussion, provided more capacity & motivated the teachers more than expected.
Benefits of older adults working with other generations include, improving physically & mentally better blood pressure, cholesterol, less incidents of feeling lonely, build strong social networks.
Intergenerational is more productive. Older workers bring knowledge & experience, younger workers bring ideas and are innovative. Experience + Innovation brings new things.
Workplace Conversations
There is a strong need for conversations in the workplace for experienced workers to address career planning, retirement planning & continuous learning.
Job training & learning programs for older Americans are a missed market segment. Someone who goes through a retraining program at 50 & then have 15 more years that can help them stay more secure & could help their social security.
Employers make assumptions about their older workers & don’t have that conversations. What would you like, where do you see yourself in 5-10 years, what kind of career do you want?
Professional development for older workers is not as available. Performance check-ins don't consider continued growth & learning.
Planning for retirement in ALL jobs and what your next career path is going to be (Not just high paying jobs) no matter what your income is, counseling, being prepared leaning, having the conversation.
Company Culture
What's in it for the employer to offer retirement savings/matches? Increase employee engagement/ retention?
In an AARP survey of corporate execs from different countries, most value age, but they don't include it in their diversity profile.
Ageism is a huge issue, Applicants face it the hardest, how do we make sure older applicants are given the same chance in hiring.
A minority of employers even consider age in diversity plans.
The older consumer is over looked. Looking at opportunities for older workers who can provide key insights to older consumers, a vantage point that gives opportunities for new revenue streams, what do older people need? Make older people a consumer market focus.
We need a company culture overhaul, making sure HR policies reflect the value of age diversification.
Job Matching/Hiring
NCBA screens employers for how well they accommodate older workers. An intensive & manual process. But needed.
Would like to be able to hire through ECO Mapping & target the areas you want to hire from. Ex. veterans, older workers, refugees, and other Affinity Groups. But there is no bucketing or mapping of those groups. Who would be responsible for keeping this updated?
Labor-matching opportunity. We can't find employees. "We would train them." Hire for passion, attitude, ability.
The challenge facing employers is recruiting. Businesses will take anyone now. But employers don't often have insight on how their job postings are working.
Employment Networks & Programs
Networks
SharedWork provides flexibility for businesses to restart and bring their employees back from unemployment with reduced hours. https://esd.wa.gov/SharedWork
WA Career Bridge program advises people on how to make a career change. https://www.careerbridge.wa.gov/
Workforce WA, Workforce Development Council Performance site. https://www.seakingwdc.org/performance
My Next Move. A Job search platform that helps you find what job you want. https://www.mynextmove.org/
DOL WIOA Dislocated Worker Program
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/workforce-investment/dislocated-workers
O Net Online shows 900 occupations & work activities associated with occupations. https://www.onetonline.org/
Improvements & Opportunities
Subsidized training programs could help keep people on the precipice from falling off. and provide wrap around supportive services to help.
Look at successful work based learning programs like apprenticeship & supportive services that help people stay and focus in training.
Is there an opportunity in federal government or outside of the government to test a service to work program. Administration on Community Living has a training program that trains older adults for jobs.
What are the metrics & how do we measure them? Like Access to jobs, Equity in service, & Job Quality.
We need foundational research on what works for older workers & then redo everything we are currently doing based on those learnings. Having more actionable data on what works can influence the legislation & create better solutions for older workers.
What impact can we have via workforce development on job quality? What levers do we have to influence things that create change at the state or local level & how do we do it.
Common Problems
Services information is difficult to find. Needs an app, enter your information and find what resources are available for in your area.
Hurdles to American Jobs Centers: digital access & complicated funding.
State job boards don't have much incentive to help older workers. They cherry-pick for the easiest candidates to help and support.
Employment network programs are confusing. Eligibility criteria is intimidating or hard to understand. Need a eligibility coordinator or expert in benefits. And need to provide a more blended approach so you don’t have to go to 17 different places.
Employment network programs are confusing. Ex: someone with a disability, in the Ticket to work program & in Social Security. Wants to keep working or needs job accommodations. Not quite sure if they will lose benefits by getting a job but you need someone to help you navigate the system.
SCSEP
Need more funding and staff to scale the Senior Community Service Employment Program. Can't serve all the demand.
The Senior Community Service Employment Program is limited to <125% of poverty level. Set too low & Underfunded.
The Senior Community Service Employment Program excludes people above 125% of poverty level.
The Senior Community Service Employment Program pays the senior the first 6 months, investing while they are being trained. Very low rejection after going through the training.
Many Senior Community Service Employment Program participants have worked in some capacity to take care of themselves & their families & most have worked all their lives, but now the challenge is finding positions for people who thought they could retire at 62 but cant do that because their expenses don’t allow them to.
Employment
Proper nouns are the names of specific people or places. They should always begin with a capital letter.
Benefits for Private Sector
Ageism in the fashion industry. Fashion for older people tends to be plain and comfortable and project a stereotype.
Private sector companies should focus on expanding their target markets up. Huge Opportunity to serve the aging population instead of overlooking them.
Retention is higher for workers in inter-generational sites
Private Sector Responsibility
Health & Safety
Shifting society: valuing labor and workers as a society, protecting their safety and wellbeing.
Employers should give financial wellness days. Alleviate well-documented stress from finance, which leads many employees to take sick days.
Supporting workers/Options
Employee Empowerment
Private sector should stop union busting, and stop pretending that they are not, and start supporting unions, Germany as an example. They don’t have to be enemies.
Amazon has so much potential. Could support unionization, support their workforce, add breaks, have a serious conversation with itself on its impact on climate, democracy, economy.
Company HR policies don't support older workers. No family leave for grandparents, no health coverage for grandchildren. Companies have benefits for adoption, but many grandparents don't adopt.
There are no career paths for highly experienced people that top out. (Too many incentives to quit working: benefits, employment)
Flexibility
There is less to no part-time work for older adults. Even with increased focus on equity, nobody is talking about equitable work opportunities for older adults.
Private and social sector employers should prioritize more full-time work. Many do part-time positions because they are cheaper for the employer + no benefits.
Wages
Private sector resources, open up savings accounts and devote funding to matching.
Shift the balance of power between workers and corporations. the wealthiest country in the world its appalling what we are allowing our older population to endure, used to be a more even balance, a reward on labor, strong social contract.
Shifting balance of power improve workers ability to earn good wages, save more, better benefits, workers comps, tax structure, strengthening employees position.
Lifetime Learning/Training
Education
Offer one year of social security credit if you are in your 50s go back to school and retool, and work a bit longer and adjust the actuarial tables. Reallocate education resources into later in life.
Why do we have education front-loaded in life, and leisure back-loaded, and people kill themselves working and raising families in between?
Universities are starting programs for people in their 50s-60s. Tend to be ~$50-60k. Very expensive
Training
Private sector resources: Develop programs to support older adults in the workforce.
Opportunity: Job readiness programs for older workers.
Encore Physicians Fellowship: brought back older doctors to staff community clinics, which have high turnover from younger docs who can't afford to stay due to debt.
Private employers could grant retirement-eligible employees time for service or education. Ex: Intel used $50M to offer one year in community service to retirement-eligible employees.
Private Sector Leading Social Impact
Expertise in corporations that can help nonprofits with efficiency, program set up, and data systems. Enable groups to leverage data and Operations Management expertise.
Amazon should be broken out into pieces. We have killed off antitrust laws and need to break it up into little pieces, and support antitrust and policy.
Corporate Equality Index by Human Rights Campaign. Created a market and competitive pressure for F500 companies to be more equitable employers.
Workplace Discrimination
Crossover between task forces: How ageism effects UI and older workers. Being unemployed longer leads to exhaustion of benefits, it is harder to get reemployed both are related.
Tremendous employment discrimination for trans people. Common story: Trans person loses their job, goes into service sector where they have limited access to savings and earnings.
More employers adopting non-discrimination employment policies.
Broad employment discrimination legal protections, nationwide. Some states have laws. Courts are debating this.
Workability
Retirement doesn't have to be 65 also it doesn’t look like the advertisements. 40hours -0 much more likely to be step down.
Various challenges in retirement Not being able to work longer Physical ability to work longer ends, ageism, downsizing, caregiving.
Financial Literacy
Compound nouns are words where two nouns have been stuck together to make a new noun. Compound nouns should be written as one word, without a hyphen.
Disparity
Most of their financial counseling clients are women. Financial literacy gaps - partner who managed money died, abusive relationship, etc.
A challenge is that financial planning mainly caters to high income/high net worth.
Sometimes choosing one resource will box you into only certain solutions. It's not broad enough to know all your options. It’s a crisis of innovation that locks people into a path we need a discovery engine who can help evaluate and identify a program's swim lane and find what the options are beyond that.
Service areas: Financial counseling, employment coaching, financial and benefit screening (service navigation).
Expand counseling services. Like a social worker, but with more financial/business savvy. Advise on home modifications. Difficult to make into business model. People avoid these conversations and decisions.
Focused on financial coaching, but often help with other daily tasks like a concierge -- delivery, appointments, connect to other services.
Private sector resources like big banks to take an exhaustive look at financial planning. This is all piecemeal now, hard to find reputable info.
There is a big challenge to encourage savings and financial literacy. But so much beyond this.
Teaching
Resources: Want more tech training and digital literacy. Can take 2 hours to teach someone how to take photo of ID and upload to application.
Provide financial education on savings, recognizing/ avoiding fraud, mobile app to track financial wellness.
Credit counseling services: Consumer Credit Counseling Services of America, National Council on Aging
Teaching financial literacy in schools often thought as the solution. But doesn't always work. Hard to teach, adapt to grade levels, not immediately relevant to students.
Coaching
Contextualized
Need to contextualize financial wellness for people. Most fin. literacy programming is prescriptive / one-size-fits-all. People exit.
Need more available, impartial financial and planning advice. Needs to be individualized, hard to scale. Systems are so fragmented.
Scale
Another big challenge is lack of awareness of financial counseling services.
Business model challenge is that financial counseling doesn't scale. 1 coach can take 4 clients per month. But 14 signed up this month. Work is very personalized and emotional (not just numbers).
Resources: Want more capacity for financial coaching.
Universal access to financial coaching.
It is challenging getting financial wellness and literacy at scale. Want large-scale implementations.
Trust
Haven't found viable, helpful for-profit business model for financial services. Mostly predatory and bad deals.
No trusted advisory, lacking information for financial planning. No financial literacy. People make huge planning decisions without information.
Would like to be able to have advisors and coaches in an integrated model with collaboration back and forth with participants.
Benefits Programs
Possessive nouns are nouns which possess something, normally another noun.
Poverty Traps and Adverse Policy
Penalty Trap
Claiming Social Security at 62 results in 30% less benefit over lifespan. This is framed as a choice, but is really a penalty. Not fair for people in lower income, physically demanding jobs that don't have a choice.
Supplemental Security Income is intended to keep people out of poverty, but actually keeps them in it. $2k asset limit -- benefits drop dollar for dollar for any earnings or asset over that amount. People throw away money to keep in the system. Even giving a car away will trigger a penalty.
Income Trap
Rewrite public benefits rules to allow homeowners to take passive rental income without cutting their benefits eligibility.
Big challenge: People may need to work for more income, but cannot because of disability, or because Social Security will cut their benefits if their income increases. Only sent 3 clients to employment coaching out of 60 clients this year.
Poverty Trap
Need to solve the underlying challenges of poverty and access to services.
Social Security benefits are below the poverty line. Need to raise them.
Healthcare Traps
Social Security cost of living increases tends to get eaten up by Medicare premiums.
Medicaid covers long term care. But LTC not affordable for people just above Medicaid income eligibility. Some people "spend down into poverty" intentionally to be eligible for that coverage.
Challenge: People above Medicaid eligibility, but not enough resources to actually pay for care.
Disability
Can you imagine if the disability force had resources like big pharma and tech like amazon.
Solution/ resource need: More capacity in tech support for people with disabilities.
Need to distinguish between disability (qualification for benefits) and Workability (ability to work) is there a gap that benefits and work don't cover? What is the gap?
Defining at what point is disability? Does Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income appropriately define disability?
Medicare/Medicaid
Choice
Innovation: HelpHomes program (run by ALTCEW in WA) - helps dual Medicare/ Medicaid eligible people with care coordination.
Break the silos of Medicare and Medicaid, and create one Center for Long Term Care. Menu of services that you might need.
Lots of activity in demystifying healthcare choices. Evidence shows that using more healthcare earlier translates to less needed later (i.e., prevention).
Cost
Public sector resources: Change Medicaid reimbursement. Compensate for home stays as much as inpatient.
The older adult population is growing and they are the most expensive group for Medicare. Ways to solve this problem because its costing the program to much.
Social Security cost of living increases tend to get eaten up by Medicare premiums.
Coverage
Misconception: Medicare covers long term care. It does not.
Misunderstood: If you need nursing home, Medicare will pay. There is coverage, but it is not entitlement, and Medicare can scale down and refuse coverage.
If health plans were to cover meal benefits, health costs would drop. But Medicare doesn't cover meals. Most private health plans don't either.
A challenge is dental coverage under Medicare. Dental issues can lead to many others -- heart disease, etc.
OASDI
Reach
Expand outreach and assistance for Social Security Administration programs.
Social Security Administration relies on nonprofits and advocates to do community outreach, but does not pay them for it.
Social Security is not just a retirement program. Nearly 100% of children benefit from disability and survivor benefits.
Social Security Administration needs more capacity for policy issues, better access and navigation, resourcing for field offices.
Solvency
Social Security Administration spends more on enforcement and scrutiny of benefits, than on outreach and enrollment.
Ideas for the Social Security Administration: income cap has to be removed, allocation of benefits has to be rethought.
"We will live and die by the social security trust fund." Need to fix benefit allocations and funding (extend taxes above the current cap).
Fix social security funding (expand taxes).
Rewrite tax laws to create a stronger safety net.
Top-down look at social security and index it to cost of living. Not keeping pace.
Pitfalls
Solutions: Fix benefit cliffs and policy issues that disincentivize work.
Make social security more generous. Hasn't kept pace with cost of living.
Unemployment insurance is designed for younger workers. Ageist policies & Social Security need to be rethought.
Too many incentives to quit working: benefits, employment, no career path for highly experienced people that top out.
Social Security was partly created to lure older workers out of workforce during period of high unemployment during Depression.
Shorter lifespans of people with less means and more physically demanding jobs - cuts into the progressivity of Social Security.
Many older adults can be modest about their needs and don't want to "take from" Social Security or Social Security Insurance. Often see it as taking from someone else "more deserving." But they are entitlement programs.
Office closures during COVID led to a drop in enrollments. Lower income people want to enroll in person. There is no online Supplemental Security Income application. Also digital inclusion barriers.
Overall System
Reach of Services
Programs need to engage with community providers that already exist and need to be a human service focused on actually needs.
Have benefit enrollment in grocery stores -- which already know who is using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), if they pay bills in the store, etc. Use the data they already have.
Expansion of services: Major issue for rural & low income areas, getting to doctors, appointments, food, services.
Expand outreach and assistance for Social Security Administration (SSA) programs.
Awareness/Education/Understanding
Generic nouns are nouns that are part of a generic statement. Generic nouns can be singular or plural. The opposite of generic nouns is collective nouns.
The difference between definite/indefinite and generic nouns is that in the sentence there must be a blanket statement or question.
The public generally doesn't understand Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or know what it is. Doesn't get much attention. Need to center equity in order to understand these critical programs.
National Council On Aging's Benefits Check Up is a good resource. Society needs more understanding of public benefit systems.
A big challenge is finding and understanding benefit programs.
People need to and should learn about what services they may need BEFORE they need them.
Non Profit Challenges
There is no incentive for nonprofits to come together to solve problems together.
The Social Security Administration relies on nonprofits and advocates to do community outreach, but does not pay them for it.
Reducing the competition between nonprofits and instead working together to create significant impact. (Currently 17 different orgs competing in the same space)
Many think the nonprofit sector is responsible for solving these problems but it can't. You need to invest in the non profit sector so that it can do more.
Philanthropic dollars don't change things systemically. They don't change or reform the system with how resources flow regardless of which sectors they are coming from.
Scale of Need
2.4 million seniors helped by our meal program -> 10 million food insecure seniors in US. Incredible need.
COVID saw huge infusions of money, but that is now waning but need is staying high and funds do not match need.
COVID uncovered many people who were already in need before COVID and the need has continued to rise as more and more people in need are found.
Need far outstrips the available resources orgs. heavily rely on volunteers already. If orgs. don’t have the money then they don’t have enough staff, then vehicles, infrastructure, ripple effect.
Functionality
Complete a full Health and Human Services assessment of all programs within and map out a perfect system. Fix current issues to create ideal solutions.
Get government agencies to coordinate across housing/ health/ education. Reorient orgs from their individual missions to the people served and what they need.
As a nation we need to invest in social infrastructure. Its better for all players to work together.
The different agencies in govt that should be forced to work together and focus around peoples needs. They are too siloed, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration.
Currently there is a truly interoperable system. government organizations are not only separate they don’t even talk to each other. There needs to be interoperability in the systems but there is nothing like that right now.
Creating a Program
Innovation Opportunities
Increase funding for digital access.
Wanted resources, a high-profile spokesperson.
Possible public sector innovation freeing up more government funding and resources for more pilot programs and new innovations.
Phased retirement is clearly defined, but not formalized, it just happens one day.
For apprenticeships caregiving, mature caregivers, has turned into a very substantial enterprise, also mature tutors is a potential.
Job-share could be an option, though it hasn't worked well for social service agencies. Ex: two people split caseload of 90 cases 45/45.
Creating hybrid jobs, with folks that are feeling pains, front line workers.
There is a lot of work around this area, money for apprenticeship programs, training, and education. We have a program heavy approach but we need system levels approaches.
We need an organization that brings together the other orgs doing this work, and mapping out the system and building out a workforce alliance. We have good groups in this space but we need to take advantage of what is already there.
Other Considerations
Many people have a hard time re-entering the workforce after feeling like they have been "put out to pasture".
The older worker values their time differently that earlier in their career, widens their job search scope, looking to shift from 60 hours to 30, or just looking for something new.
It might take an older person 3-4 times more time to get through a digital boot camp.
Many seniors who need employment don't have a high school diploma or GED.
Employer Needs
Employers still say it's not good enough. What do they [applicants] need to get an actual job? What are the employers looking for? We are rewriting some resumes to help them [applicants] get a job.
Program Needs
Need to upskill digitally. Starting to embed digital aspect into training.
Older job seekers need greater visibility, getting the right messages and reaching people through the employer sides.
Connecting jobs that are good for seniors based on responsibilities and needs.
Asking older workers where are you at now and what do you need. Meeting people where they are and working towards their goals.
Many job training opportunities, are not looking for entry level jobs. Need to change interview skills to look at transferable skills.
How do we connect low income people to, low lift work, and fill jobs that companies will always need people to fill.
Make sure training programs that exist are cognizant of the population. Starting where they are. Do they need an email? What are the group needs that need to be addressed?
Participant Needs
What older workers want.
Good benefits, part-time (5am-8 a couple hours)
Mild easy job (Ushers, drivers)
Pay, will it give you the money you need?
Program Eligibility Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance being careful with how much they need to make to stay in the programs.
Senior needs for employment include transportation, appropriate clothing, and interpersonal communication skills.
Older workers need flexibility, especially with COVID, they might be willing to come in 2 days a week, but don't want to do full time. Some mixture of brick and mortar and remote work. And flexibility of hours.
Mindset training some people have to get over being 65 and working for someone who is 35 and how to face these situations.
Senior needs for employment include interpersonal communication skills like how to field customer calls and talk with your boss.
Helping older adults be better prepared for an interview and showing them the way to age friendly employers.
Biggest challenge to helping people find jobs is English as a second language. Broad range of ability and a need for learning.
Making sure students learn what they need Then making sure students have the mindset and ability to do what they need to do and learn what they need to learn.
Questions for Participants
What opportunities does the employer give older workers?
What is my skill level to do a specific job?
How much retirement am I getting?
Do I need specific benefits (ex: healthcare)?
How healthy am I? Can I do what
I need to do for this position?
How much income do I need?
What do I want to do?
Program Design
The average age of apprenticeships is 31. They have children and mortgages. They need to fast track, not do anything extra.
What an apprentice needs is not academic. Can't run on academic calendar. They don't want general education requirements of any kind.
In a program that would benefit older workers, older workers will need to get paid and ultimately they need to be hired by an employer.
Many aspects involved in this system, industry needs, personal individual needs, education and workforce training, and cultural elements that underlie it all.
Older Workers
Gaps in Serving Older Workers
Partnering with groups or creating their own pathways for employment. But focusing on older Americans. Many companies have internships and fellowships for college and younger but if they had those opportunities for older Americans that would be great.
Give grants that prove older workers have longevity in the workplace, the success of reskilling and retraining. We don’t have enough program research or opportunity to collect information on successful training, hiring rates, difference between earnings, how long they stay.
Older adults have backgrounds & interest in finding opportunities for being connected to employment. Need to make it more real & achievable by creating pipelines for older adults.
There is a lack of retraining programs for older/mid-career workers. Lots for younger workers.
Designing for Older Workers
Organize programs to actually serve older Americans a little more training to pivot or reskill, opportunities for mentoring. Ex: Leveraging a worker's 40 years in construction, leveraging understand of building codes, construction and more. We don’t think of people in those types of roles.
Making sure the job is appropriate to the applicant & the employer. Finding job opportunities recognizing there are older workers who can still work as a cashier, stock shelves, & do many things.
Look at jobs available & see which ones would be ideal for older workers. Some want to work and will stay until they cant anymore.
Programs that are really focused on older workers. Making sure programs are designed, making sure access points are actually accessible for older adults. Ex: digital access is a huge issue for low income older adults.
Broad band access allows older adults with mobility issues can still be involved, do items online and connect with others, serve, work from home, connect with medical and mental health services.
Older Americans want to work, give, be productive, and be a part of their community. We need to bring the benefits and impact to the older community so they can be a part of it all.
Fulfilled workers stay in their jobs longer. What do they want to do, what are they capable of doing? Do they need access to retraining, resume help, interview preparation?
Understanding Older Workers
2 very different pandemics.
1. Office jobs, worked from home, great retirement growth.
2. Service workers let go, not rehired, making less or nothing.
We want to keep older professionals engaged. Getting a job is that hardest part after a program try to connect people to those opportunities.
Older workers have a hard time getting back into the workforce. People from their late 50s into 70s that need to work for income but have job loss or cut hours.
Very few older adults have truly retired, they have started other careers, they care consulting, mentoring young people in their expert realm.
Because the population is aging, there are lots of efforts looking at aging in place. People will need transportation, wellness checks, light items and companionship.
Think about someone who has worked all their lives, sent kids to college, contributed to their communities, active in churches, nearly half over 65 & are still having problems covering their costs, because they were not able to save.
Ageism for Applicants
When COVID happened and literally millions were forced out of the workplace. Ageism was rampant during COVID.
Ageism on the employer front, employers perceive them [older workers] as more expensive and yet they aren't and they tend to stay around longer.
Ageism, is so big. Personal mindset for the older workers too. Advertising & media worker images are not of older workers.
Age discrimination issues are less prominent in smaller businesses, more relationship based. Big companies often do layoffs with an excel spreadsheet.
Ageism is really a thing. Our participants can't get interviewed, they may have had a 6 figure income and now their option is fast food or customer service.
Savings
A concrete noun is a noun that can be identified through one of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, smell).
Passive Income
People are nervous to increase their passive income, it can affect the benefits you get. (creating policies that don’t penalize) working through policy and tax consequences.
Let's start thinking abut the revenue side. Ways to boost passive income and not go into foreclosure. Spending more responsibly can't be the only answer. Can institutions help create more options like silver nest?
Savings Vehicles
Eliminate Penalties
Private sector should eliminate penalties for early withdrawal of savings for people who really need it.
Beyond Employer Options
Expand automatic savings to more workers. Proposal has been circulating to open Federal Thrift Savings Plan (like 401k) to non-fed employees.
Economists have suggested pensions for young families, when they need financial security the most.
Private sector resources: "Would bring back pensions, but that's not possible in this lifetime."
Lack of savings options for working and non-working adults. Too many options are only thru employer.
Need ways to enable people to save more or use their money differently.
Lifetime Programs
Establish lifetime programs ex: Newborn Cash deposits into cash savings, IRA on graduation day.
Early prevention (preparation?) measures work best. Opportunities to set up "IRA on graduation day", 529 college savings for newborns
Employer Matching Programs
Financial institutions could have incentive to fund more savings match programs -- e.g., Community Reinvestment Act
Want to see more match savings programs. Ex: VistaShare. Incentives for employers and community orgs to fund them -- tax incentives, foundation funding.
Private sector resources: open up savings accounts and devote funding to matching.
Expand automatic savings to more workers. Without government action, employers may need to band together like a union.
On The Edge of Disaster
Reaching Retirement
Our perception of retirement is different than the reality there is a misconception because people still need to work, don’t have pensions, economic downturn, take care of family, many parents still helping their children.
People with means can hold out until 70 and they are fine. We only penalize people who don’t have other options have less, and less ability to have other options or choice.
We want to look for ways for people to work stable and retire respectfully, and currently only about half of workers can do that.
A focus on older workers in precarious situations, dangerous jobs, less access to and means for retirement, less access to savings, low input into social security.
Current reality of "retirement" working as long as your body can tell and then struggling along.
Older workers in precarious situations (lower income, working, physically demanding jobs) = ~12 million, primarily service workers, BIPOC, immigrants.
Struggling people, If they can make it to 62 and then get penalized because they can make it to full retirement.
Health
There is a strong link between health and economic security. Your health drives your wealth.
"Wealth drives your health, which in turn drives your wealth."
Saving
Haven't Saved Enough
"Once you are in retirement your situation is baked"
Stop treating wealth hoarding as the end all be all, it hurts innovation, is bad for democracy.
The next generation won't have the resources that his one has. (Ex: pensions are gone) In the future they might be worse off. How can we ensure that the generation coming next be better prepared.
Advice to "Save more. Save more. Consolidate Debt" only goes so far.
Individual savings won't cover many disabilities, accidents, health issues, not able to save.
Can't Afford to save
Private sector should raise wages so that people have enough money for basic needs and to save.
Many people don't save or don't contribute to 401k if they are in deep student debt. Saving for retirement isn't the top goal.
Opportunity for employers to understand reasons why employees don't save more, and create/orient programs to those reasons. Ex: student debt repayment assistance.
Core challenge: People don't have enough income to meet their basic needs. People can't save if they are not simply making enough money.
Barrier: Lower income people need to use more of their money to live and have less to save. Difficult to expand savings with that barrier.
Boomers are taking money from children's 529 college savings.
Quality of Life
Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted, even if the number might be extraordinarily high.
Uncountable nouns are nouns that come in a state or quantity which is impossible to count; liquids are uncountable, as are things which act
like liquids.
Partnerships/Collaboration/Coordinated Approach
Health Care Partnerships
Organizations that provide home services see value in partnering with healthcare -- lessen social isolation, identify health issues earlier
Meals On Wheels is working more with healthcare orgs, which finally understand that health requires more than just the clinical setting. But healthcare doesn't have relationships with local community orgs.
Build a national in-home care provider workforce.
National Partnerships
Policies to incentivize support and resources across sectors, going well beyond to where they create an environment that fosters partnerships between health care and community orgs, and corporate orgs.
Use results and data to better understand user groups and form new partnerships/ clients.
Agency coordination and info sharing needs improvement. Agencies are quite good at sharing data to find out who owes money. Why can't they share data to help people enroll in services?
Need to view government as an alley & collaborate as complementary partners. Now sectors are in conflict and it is undermining our success.
Nationalize senior services. Patchwork across states right now.
Minnesota has a good data sharing, centralized intake for services.
Home Sharing Partnerships
Home sharing can have successful partnerships with gov and nonprofits - prevent displacement, homelessness, address housing affordability. Gov funds the service, nonprofit brokers relationships and administers the program, home sharing provides the platform,
Home sharing companies need nonprofit brokers who know local context and have trusted relationships. Very individual, trust-based system
Home sharing has found effective partnerships with affinity groups that experience housing challenges. Ex: Veterans
Technology Solutions
Transportation
Mobility is a big driver of people moving into assisted living. Older adults may lose ability to drive, but still can and want to live at home. Autonomous vehicles and ride sharing are innovating here.
Modern Mobility: Loose ability to drive to eyesight, can still live at home, rideshare, smart homes, delivery.
Policy solution: Car/van service accessible for older people. Promising private sector examples (e.g., Silver Ride), but hard to scale.
Smart Homes
Caregiving & Technology, Smart homes, rideshare, helping people age in place
Technology Solutions beyond the life alert bracelets, Ride share, Smart homes, Autonomous vehicles.
Medicare should get involved in smart home. Potentially fund innovations here.
Smart home innovations are helping people age in place -- communicate with outside world and stay in touch with caregivers.
Holistic Approach
Concierge services to help people with daily needs. Ex: Beacon Hill Village in Boston. People pay dues to a concierge who helps coordinate services. 120-130 of these villages across US.
Nonprofit sector: Need more whole-person services. Legal services tend to be narrowly focused on one issue (ex housing, Social Security). But people's challenges span issues.
National Council On Aging focuses on helping people 1. Educate 2. Situation 3. Activate
5 pillars of National Aging In Place Council "Act 3" framework: Health, Financial, Social Engagement, Mobility, Housing.
Meals On Wheels is such a popular name but people don’t know as much around other services. Home assessments, wholistic support.
Meals on Wheels "more than a meal" services: monitor wellness, senior check-ins, social, safety checks, connect to other community services.
A holistic perspective on aging is important and few national level organization actually have that. Most are focused on one aspect of aging, or membership organization.
Support & Connection
The nonprofit sector is so tapped into the community & in homes, desire to leverage the boots on the ground to help people where they are at and help shepherd people through the processes even more so.
Broader awareness of seniors about the resources available to them. Don't have to struggle alone.
70% of Meals On Wheels members do both home delivered and community dinning. Meal service and Connection to community.
Create a discovery engine to help people find people and services that can help in difficult transitions later in life.
Have a person/coach to help people through big transition moments in life: divorce, death of spouse, living alone. Needs personal touch.
Early Intervention
Moving down the age to get more impact, business has a ton of opportunity but societal impact has even more.
Change conceptions about retirement. Not a "40 to 0" (working hours) experience. More like a step down.
Need to focus on adults in their 40s and 50s. Shift from mitigation to prevention.
Attitude
Interest in innovations that give purpose to older age and reframe toward dignity rather than victimhood. Ex: company that redesigned hearing aid to be more like an Apple product. "Design for a richer life, not just for decline."
Even the best approaches tend to be very prescriptive. the contextualization doesn’t change functionally but it makes it more relevant to the individual and really helps solve a lot of problems in terms of usage and product adoption.
Shifting Attitude: Looking at the brighter side, options for older adults, an opportunity to reinvent, a different lens, applying a design process & creating things for older adults.
Not just loss and decline. Serving for a better life.
Not using a victim mindset, creating exciting products and opportunity for the elderly.
"We're focused on prolonging life. How might we help people live richer lives?"
Caregiving
Common nouns are words for people, places or things that aren’t specific (as opposed to a proper noun which refers to only one person, place or thing).
Common nouns can be countable or uncountable, singular or plural.
Awareness
People find our meal programs through self referrals, family members caregivers, aging network area agencies on aging, health care providers, doctors.
Disproportionate Effects
Caregiving hits women and people of color more than other groups. This in turn limits their economic opportunity and ability to generate wealth. Cycle persists over generations. Particularly important challenge in Black community.
Family Responsibility
Other countries approach aging very differently. India's "supporting parents act" makes it a crime not to support parents. Singapore does not allow inheritance without support.
Many older adults are not receivers of care, but caregivers themselves.
Children have to dial down or leave workforce in order to be caregiver for parent. Domino effect into next generation.
Caregiving Wages
Build regional workforces for home caregiving. Make this higher paid, more attractive. Suffers from low pay, high turnover, limited English proficiency.
Caregiving is a big challenge. Poorly paid profession. Impacts the economic security and saving ability of the person giving care (whether older or younger).
Public resources: Create livable wages for caregivers and reduce cost for caregiving.
Declining Birth Rate
Social sector resources: Caregiving for people without children. LGBT community has lower rates of children than broader population.
People are having fewer children, which means fewer family caregivers, and need for more professional caregivers.
Intergenerational
A noun which refers to a group of things/people.
Age Segregation
"When you turn generations into interest groups..." leads to dismissiveness and social isolation.
Get rid of age segregation. Open schools and spaces to all ages. No senior-only housing.
A challenge is that we have built an environment is designed for age segregation. Residential developments, parks, senior centers.
Big challenge: Age segregation. People across all ages are losing a sense of the wholeness of life.
Age-segregated living appeals to fewer people.
Intergenerational Benefits
Resources: Have builders, developers, planners integrate generations. Ex: Singapore, combined generational housing.
Retention is higher for workers in intergenerational sites
Seniors renting out parts of their homes to younger people, ex nursing students. People are doing this informally right now (no intermediaries that they're aware of).
Intergenerational housing that gives older homeowner financial and household help, and provides cheaper housing for students.
Surveys show ~90% of caregivers and older people want intergenerational housing.
Ageism
A noun which cannot be identified by using one of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, smell).
Myths & Misconceptions
Homogenous Myth
"What's good for us is often good for us across generations."
Just because you are a certain age doesn't mean you are at a certain level. (Categorize by need not age?)
Technology Myths
Debunked myths that seniors don't want to use technology.
Technology is not as much of a barrier for seniors as people think. They have smartphones. Still a learning curve, but not a barrier.
A large misconception is that older adults are digitally illiterate. People often think current older generation is early WW2 era. Not true they are very digitally literate.
Antiquated views of the elderly. (Early WW2) Aging Americans now have experience with technology.
Diversity
BIPOC and LGBT
Many in LGBT community doing ok in older years, tend to be lesbian or gay couples, double income no kids. Though lesbian couples not as secure as gay male couples due to gender gap.
Shift in attitude towards race and the role of systemic racism, is foundational. Understanding this is needed to fight employment & hiring issues, & discrimination.
SAGE starts programs for people 60+ -- except for people with HIV, veterans, and trans people (starts service at 50, given need for longer runway for financial stability).
Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders [SAGE] trains senior service providers in culturally competency.
Older adults who are Black & Indigenous People of Color are a bit more dependent on Social Security.
Meals On Wheels participants are predominately people of color, very low income, chronic health conditions. These people have struggled all their life, not newly insecure.
Diversity in Aging
Serving the aging in communities of color to address their needs & need to consider language, racism & discrimination. And Understand that communities of color are still facing those issues.
Misconception that older adults are not diverse. Traditional services/ solutions for older adults assumed they're all middle class white people. Much more diverse.
Many senior programs are white-centric. Work needs to be done to make them more culturally appropriate.
From a diversity lens, for a long time the older group has been see as homogenous groups. This is not the case instead is very diverse.
Attitudes
Demystifying Aging
People don't want to admit they will age and need help. Need to demystify the idea of aging.
Demystifying the concept of aging. Current mindset is these things won't apply to me.
We're an ageist society.
We need a revolution around ageism. Similar size & power compared to BLM & Me Too so people pay attention. Make ageism a forefront conversation. Many people don’t want to talk about it, it is uncomfortable, mortality and morbidity.
Persistent ageism, people don’t see the possibilities for older adults. Our view of adults is outdated.
Solution: Create pathways for transition later in life. Catch up developmentally, retool economically. U.S. cultural sense that older people are useless and in the way.
Other countries approach aging very differently. India's "supporting parents act" makes it a crime not to support parents. Singapore does not allow inheritance without support
Nobody knows what services they will need when they get older -- because people don't want to admit they will get older.
Age discrimination can start in someone's 40s
Housing
Irregular nouns are nouns which don’t follow a spelling pattern when pluralized.
Home Sharing
Biggest barrier to broader home sharing: social stigmas around having a roommate later in life. "Roommates? That's what you do when you're kids."
Resources: Use local community nonprofits' local context and trusted relationships to grow home sharing.
Resources: Would use large company/ nonprofit's resources to launch awareness campaign for home sharing.
Resources: Free up more gov resources to support pilot home sharing programs (rather than only building/ funding new affordable housing)
Primary users of home sharing:
1) Older female homeowners after a divorce or death of spouse (want social benefit);
2) Older homeowner struggling to maintain home and costs (want economic benefit)
Aging In Place
Challenge: Housing and staying in their own home. Home is greatest financial asset, but not liquid, and expensive to maintain.
BIPOC and LGBT Housing
Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders operates 2 affordable housing buildings in NYC.
Want to be able to give housing to LGBT people who are homeless but haven't been in shelter. Local rules require housing to allocate beds by shelter referrals. But LGBT (especially Trans) people don't feel safe in shelters.
Want to be able to market housing to low-income LGBT people. Fair housing prevents LGBT-specific housing (due to non-discrimination). But LGBT people need safe place to live.
There is not enough data on older BIPOC adults and housing security, we are trying to access more data.
Reverse Mortgages
The National Aging in Place Council [NAIPC] emerged from National Aging in Place week (a public relations effort). Emerged from reverse mortgage work as more comprehensive effort to help people age at home.
Reverse mortgages require homeowner to go through counseling before finalizing a loan. Lender can talk to customer about reverse mortgage, but can't process application until counseling complete.
The reverse mortgage industry is severely misunderstood. Industry isn't as big as it could be. Dubious reputation earned after early scams that preyed upon lower income homeowners. FHA came in as a backstop. Most reverse mortgages go thru FHA now.
AARP is not very supportive of reverse mortgages. Fear of predatory practices, they insist on consumer protections to the point that reverse mortgages become unviable.
Many reverse mortgages end in foreclosure -- due to death of the borrower, with a loan that is bigger than value of the house. But this often is reported as predatory practices.
Currently ~60k reverse mortgages processes nationwide per year. 1.2M processed over time, cumulatively.
Home Modification
Policy solution: Incentives for home modification. Tax credits would have to be refundable since many seniors don't have much tax liability.
Home modifications can be big saver. Avoids home accidents, falls, broken bones. Incidence of death after a broken hip is astonishing.
Affordable Housing
Oregon = example of progress in affordable housing. Lots of new production after policy changes under current governor.
Would increase vouchers for affordable housing. Nobody is taking these right now since housing costs are so high.
I wish we could House everyone.
Affordable housing for seniors is a big challenge. There are long wait lists and Social Security isn't enough to cover rent.
Biggest challenge seen is access to affordable housing.
Employment insecurity leads to housing insecurity. Someone who lost their job or has bounced around service sector cannot provide employment history for housing applications.
An Area Agency on Aging in WA has added more housing specialists to their network & staff because of growing challenge of housing affordability. "We were never a housing agency."
One Area Agency on Aging in WA location now gets as many calls about housing assistance as they do about other senior services.
