It is a fact that we all get older. We all age. How we age and what “aging” really means is at the heart of the Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio (SALSA) initiative of the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAFdn).

Through its research and varied strategic collaborations, SALSA has been a force in the community working to improve the overall quality of life for older adults.

As part of these efforts, SALSA launched the Reframing Aging initiative in 2020. Its long-term goal is to improve the understanding of what aging means and to highlight the countless ways that older adults contribute to our community.

“We aren’t aging like our grandparents or our great grandparents,” noted Jane Paccione, the Area Foundation’s Managing Director of Collective Impact who leads the SALSA program. “This longevity dividend that we’ve been given where many, many more people are aging and it’s amazing. By 2034, there will be a huge population shift where for the first time in U.S. history, older adults will outnumber younger people.”

The Reframing Aging initiative is part of a larger national movement looking to address this very situation. Faced with this looming reality of an unprecedented change in our collective population, programs like SALSA and the National Center to Reframe Aging began to look for ways to ensure that public policies, programs and support systems can help meet the needs of current and future older adults. 

“This Reframing Aging initiative really wants us to think about and talk about aging differently,” said Paccione. “[Getting older] is not the end of a road, but the third act of a long road. We’re living [on average] 30 more extra years. What do we do with that?”

One of the main avenues that Reframing Aging is using to affect change is through regular presentations in the community by trained SALSA facilitators. The presentations speak on the topic of aging and ageism, creating supportive policies and programs, and ways that older adults can still contribute to our community.

“I’ve worked with older adults for my entire career,” explained Jill Piazzi, owner of Grey Matters and one of the original facilitators with SALSA’s Reframing Aging initiative. “I’ve always supported efforts surrounding aging efforts and needs and services. I got involved with SALSA and the initiative because I thought, wow, if we can teach people how to work with older adults, use the right language, and not use ageist beliefs, this felt like something right up my alley.”

The presentations that Piazzi and her fellow facilitators tackle are the unfortunate stigmatism of aging and the prejudice of ageism. While laws and policies are in place to prevent discrimination against older adults, there is still an underlying psychological and even institutional ageism that persists. This is one of the larger challenges that the institution aims to tackle.

“Our goal is to educate the community, whether it be professionals or older adults, on what it is to think about your own aging and how you can have a positive view of that,” Piazzi said.

“Also, we try to educate people on how they see [older adults]. Whether these people are in the healthcare industry or an employer, what is the language you’re using with your staff, patients, and just individuals? It’s just to educate people on their implicit bias,” she added.

The success to date has been overwhelmingly positive. Reaching out to groups as part of the SALSA network, the goal of ending that implicit bias or ageism is very much one that is doable. It will take time, but it is a mission that is wholeheartedly worthwhile.

“There is no expiration date on a good idea,” Paccione said. “We benefit as a society when we listen to one another. We need to make sure younger people listen to older people, we need to use an intergenerational lens where we’re benefitting from everyone’s knowledge and experience.”

Interested in supporting the Area Foundation’s work in the community through impactful programs such as SALSA’s Reframing Aging initiative? Click here to get started.

Eric Moreno is a member of the Area Foundation’s Marketing & Communications Storytelling Ambassador contributor network.