This is an exciting time to be working on behalf of senior citizens. On January 17, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new initiative - The All Ages Project - during his State of the City address. The Mayor has challenged the Department (and all City agencies and other stakeholders) to help make New York City the most age-friendly City in the nation. This project asks us to take a comprehensive look at our service system and operations, and not only to eliminate redundancies and define areas for cost savings, but also to envision how we can best enable seniors to live longer and healthier lives in their own homes and communities. At the Department for the Aging, we have taken the Mayor's challenge seriously. I am very proud of the collaborative process we have launched with aging network providers, advocates, elected officials and community leaders to modernize the aging services system.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you. Also, call 311 to learn about the Department's services for seniors or read more at nyc.gov/aging.

On hand with best wishes were City Councilman Dominic Recchia, Chair of the sub-committee on Cultural Affairs, who authored the initiative, and City Council members Maria del Carmen Arroyo and James Vacca, respective chairs of the Council's sub-committee on Aging and sub-committee on Senior Centers, who helped usher it through. Guests were warmly greeted by Rubin Museum CEO Donald Rubin, who spoke of the Rubin Museum's commitment to seniors.

A feather-balancing act, performed by seniors from the Stein Center under the tutorship of Stephanie Monseu and Keith Nelson, co-founders of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, introduced the short formal program. It was brought to a close by dancers from the City Hall Senior Center, and followed by museum tours for senior guests.

Commissioner Mendez-Santiago reminded the audience of the saying he first learned from seniors themselves when he was a young staffer at a senior center - 'if you don't use it, you lose it.' "The seniors were right," he said. "Studies now show that continuing to be active and to seek creative challenges correlates with physical, mental and spiritual health." The Commissioner also commented that the initiative is very much in line with DFTA's vision of transforming senior centers into hubs of active and healthy aging, and with the intent of the "All Ages" project announced by the Mayor in his State of the City address January 17th.

The many funded projects include:

Bronx. The Pergones Theater, dedicated to creating and performing original musical theater and plays rooted in Puerto Rican/Latino cultures, will partner with six Bronx senior centers to provide interactive creation-and-performance workshops focused on poetry, storytelling and choreographed movement. Seniors will also have opportunities to perform on a professional stage and to attend Pergones Theater performances.

Brooklyn. Artichoke Dance Company will offer seniors at Fort Greene Senior Center dance-theatre classes, including verbal and movement-oriented improvisation exercises, group song and poetry. Classes will culminate in a performance by seniors for family and friends.

Manhattan. Music from China, an organization that preserves, develops and promotes Chinese music through performance, education and instruction, will develop hands-on workshops on Chinese performing arts and cultural heritage for the City Hall Senior Center and its predominantly Chinese American membership.

Queens. Queens Botanical Garden will partner with the United Hindu Cultural Council Senior Center to provide hands-on horticulture workshops during which seniors will create something to take home with them, such as a mini-greenhouse, terrarium, or dish garden.

Staten Island. The Richmond Dance Ensemble in partnership with the Mount Loretto Friendship Club Senior Center will provide seniors with opportunities to attend its performances at the 1929 St. George Theatre and will conduct an interactive workshop at the center where seniors can share their memories of visiting the theatre.

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StoryCorps Records Oral History at DFTA

Several members of the DFTA family took part in a StoryCorps Griot recording event hosted by DFTA, December 27th and January 3rd. StoryCorps is a national oral history project that invites people to record stories from their lives. Its one-year Griot project is collecting stories of the African-American experience. Griots are honored storytellers in West African tradition who hand down family and community history from one generation to the next.

"So much legacy gets passed on through story-telling," said Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago. "Particularly the stories told by elders," he continued. "Someone has called them 'wrappings for wisdom,' and I agree. That is why the Department is so pleased to work with StoryCorps arranging these interviews and providing recording space."

DFTA Advisory Board member Eartha Thompson-Washington interviewed her 90 year old mother, Susan Dingle (see picture). Like many StoryCorp participants, she was surprised to learn things about her mother she hadn't known. Not only had Mrs. Dingle worked at a printing shop when she came to New York, she quietly picked up how to set type by observing the shop's typesetters at the job, and, after surprising her boss by filling in for a sick worker one day, was often asked to operate the presses.

Maggie Lee, Grandparent Resource Center Advisory Board Member and Grandparent Support Group Leader, talked about her family's cookbook with a StoryCorps facilitator, who asked her to share her grandmother's recipe for teacakes. Mrs. Lee also shared the scrapbook of photos and mementos she had lovingly compiled with her sister.

All participants received a CD of the 40 minute interview. Their stories will be archived at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. and at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. DFTA also linked StoryCorps to the Odee Holland Senior Center in Harlem, where seven seniors were interviewed.

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Study of Aging Artists Identifies Strengths and Needs

According to the first assessment ever conducted of the needs of the City's aging artists, visual artists aged 62 and older are engaged, productive, planning to remain in the City and to remain working artists. They are also concerned about expenses and coping with the challenges of growing old. Professor Joan Jeffri of Columbia University's Research Center for Arts and Culture, Teachers College, reported on these findings before an audience of service organizations dedicated to artists and/or aging populations on Thursday, Jan 10th. The Department for the Aging and the Department of Cultural Affairs sponsored the event.

Although they are generally members of robust and diverse support networks, aging artists face issues that their social network alone cannot address, Professor Jeffri told the audience. These issues are related to their lifelong careers as artists. Their non-traditional work histories, for example, mean many have little or no pension or retirement income. Older artists also worry what to do with their "estate" - the body of art works they will leave behind - and how to handle taxation issues. The continued availability of rent-control and rent-stabilization is another specific concern of aging artists who have thrived in New York's creative environment but who fear losing their affordable apartments and studios.

The great majority of artists Professor Jeffri studied are vigorously continuing to produce and eager for exhibition space, but many feel their "age" is held against them. Also, many do not know where to turn for the services they need as they age.

A free-ranging discussion and brainstorming session followed the presentation, with both aging service providers and service organizations for artists suggesting how they might respond to these needs. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts have offered to host working groups to continue the dialogue. The Department for the Aging and the Department of Cultural Affairs are working with their respective community partners to connect artists and senior centers.

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Korean-American Alzheimer's Coalition Launched with DFTA Support

Service providers, mental health agencies and community organizations concerned with improving services and care for Korean Americans launched the first Korean American Alzheimer's Coalition, January 10th at Dae-Dong Manor in Flushing, Queens. With the incidence of Alzheimer's disease increasing, and the Asian American senior population also growing, the Coalition will address the Korean American community's educational, service and advocacy needs with regard to Alzheimer's.

One of the primary goals of the Coalition will be to foster information-sharing, coordination and cross-referrals among its professional members. The Coalition will also challenge Alzheimer's disease stigma in the Asian American community through public education and outreach events.

DFTA's Alzheimer's and Caregiver Resource Center was instrumental in organizing the Coalition. DFTA Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago greeted founding members and guests at the launch. Joining the Commissioner were representatives of organizations deeply involved in developing the Coalition: Coalition Chairperson Susan Cho of the Korean American Behavioral Health Association and Haen Son, President of the Association; Visiting Nurse Services Vice President Dee Kelly and Director of Chinatown Community Services Amy Mung; Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York President Kwang S. Kim; and Hamilton-Madison House Director of Caregiver Services, An Hoang.

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Empowered Grandparent Caregivers Celebrate New Skills

Fourteen grandparent caregivers walked proudly across the stage at Fordham University January 29th to accept their certificates of "empowerment," signed by the Dean of Fordham's School of Social Service. For 14 weeks they had been participants in a unique course designed by Dr. Carol Cox of Fordham to teach them not only communication and behavior management skills for raising their grandchildren, but also how to advocate for themselves and their grandkids with schools, agencies, service providers and government officials and how to help their peers facing similar issues.

Dr. Cox calls empowerment training a critical step in strengthening grandparents both in the family and community. "I love teaching this course," she said. "These grannies have such tremendous love for their grandkids and they're so determined to be good parents even though it's not their generational role."

The Department for the Aging has supported empowerment training classes for grandparent caregivers for the past eight years. Participants are recruited from the network of grandparent support groups affiliated with DFTA's Grandparent Resource Center (the GRC). The course is offered in Spanish as well as English, and plans are under way to offer it to Russian-speaking grandparent caregivers.

The GRC helps develop and sustain grandparent support groups in all five boroughs and provides opportunities for information-sharing, specialized training and events planning to group facilitators. In December, the GRC collected more than 1,000 toys for distribution to grandparent-headed families thanks to contributions from Toys for Tots and the Brookdale Foundation as well as private donations. The GRC also provided support for holiday parties at which the toys were distributed, along with movie tickets for teenagers.

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Campaign Targets Underutilization of Medicare's Preventive Medicine

DFTA's Health Insurance Information, Counseling and Assistance Center (HIICAP) is planning a campaign to raise seniors' awareness of the disease prevention interventions available through Medicare. "A lot of seniors don't know that Medicare will cover counseling to quit smoking, for example, or bone mass measurement or lots of the basic screening tests people should have," said Amy Bernstein, Director of HIICAP. "It's a shame these benefits are underutilized when they can play such an important role in preventing disease."

Furthermore, Ms. Bernstein says, many people do not even know they have high cholesterol or at risk for glaucoma or for breast or colorectal or prostate cancer because they do not take advantage of the screening tests available - tests that are free or lower cost through Medicare. "Doctors have a responsibility to discuss these tests with their patients," she comments, "but seniors also need to be assertive and ask their doctors about them. The first step is informing seniors that these are covered benefits."

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Program Spotlight: MentorCHIP

MentorCHIP is one of fourteen community-based intergenerational initiatives funded by the Department two years ago. It was developed by the Community Services Society as a new service area for its Retired Senior and Volunteer Program (RSVP), which links older persons with community service opportunities. MentorCHIP pairs volunteer mentors 55 years of age and older with children of incarcerated parents (hence, MentorCHIP). Each pair meets once a week, to work on academic skills, explore the City and - vitally - to develop trusting relationships that help the child build up his or her assets and the senior "give back" to his community.

RSVP works in partnership with organizations that have mentorship programs for children of incarcerated parents and adolescents who are part of the juvenile justice system and receive mentoring as an alternative to incarceration. These organizations identify the mentees and RSVP provides the mentors. Currently there are 24 matched pairs meeting at least one afternoon a week, and 15 additional volunteers are in training. Volunteer sites are in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Volunteers receive an intensive 10-day training as well as ongoing support and professional development from RSVP.

"It's not easy recruiting volunteers to work with this population," said Mary Anne Flanagan, Director of the MentorCHIP initiative. "These are kids with lots of self-esteem issues, not a lot of role models, very little stability in their lives, and very little foundation for trust," she continued. "It has a tremendous impact on them when someone shows up regularly to meet with them and goes through the thick and thin of establishing a relationship. But working with them doesn't offer the immediate appeal of working with babies and young children, and we need to advertise the rewards."

Ms. Flanagan is enthusiastic about her current volunteers. "They are diverse, they are interesting, they are committed," she says. "Just to give you some examples, one mentor is teaching his mentee the saxophone, having learned that the boy loves music; another is working with a youngster being home-schooled due to chronic asthma and helping her not only with homework but to build confidence in her dreams for her future. In still another program success, we had twenty-four young people creating portfolios of lyrics, poetry and stories to share with their incarcerated parents last year. In one case, the portfolio was a lovingly made dynamo, an electromagnetic device composed of a battery and wire coils that our retired Con Ed volunteer worked on with his mentee for over a month."

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