- The SCAN Foundation's Advancing Health Equity in Aging initiative aims to address disparities faced by older adults by harnessing interventions directly from aging individuals and their communities.
- As a collaborative learning partner in the initiative, Providence CORE is gathering data and insights from the initiative's Equity Community Organizing Groups.
- CORE's ongoing research, observations, and collection of participant feedback are helping guide and advance this community-led effort.
“Do I think we’re heard, in general? No. We’re invisible. The older I got, the less I was seen.” This statement from a participant in the California-based Advancing Health Equity in Aging initiative highlights a major challenge facing older adults: a sense that their voices and issues aren’t receiving the attention they deserve. Responding to this challenge is at the core of this initiative, which seeks to address disparities faced by older adults by harnessing interventions directly from their communities.
The Providence Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CORE) is proud to be a collaborative learning partner in this effort focused on the initiative’s Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Groups program. Through interviews, data collection, and observation, we are providing valuable data and insights to help advance this community-led effort.
Read on to learn how CORE is supporting the initiative, which is funded by The SCAN Foundation, the California Health Care Foundation, and Metta Fund. Or visit The SCAN Foundation's Advancing Health Equity in Aging webpage for more information.
Leading with lived experience
Beginning in January 2024, the Advancing Health Equity in Aging Initiative established four ECO Groups consisting of older adults, caregivers and other stakeholders. The four groups represent urban areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles and rural communities in Cloverdale and Imperial Valley. In each community, the ECO Groups are using grassroots organizing approaches to identify and address critical issues affecting the health of their region's older adults.
With an initial 18-month funding period, the ECO Groups are focused on co-designing solutions to these health inequities that reflect the lived experiences of older adults and shift power back to their communities. Their initial work includes a variety of activities, including recruitment, relationship building, as well as prioritizing issues to focus on.
Advancing shared learning
As the initiative’s collaborative learning partner, CORE has been gathering data and sharing learnings to help the ECO Groups succeed and assisting the initiative’s funders in supporting this community-led work. Through interviews, document review, and active participation in ECO Group meetings, we’ve helped to identify a variety of shared challenges and opportunities.
For example, participants see the ECO Groups as a platform to amplify their voices, build community, and advocate for meaningful change. Additional discussion has centered around issues like housing, healthcare access, and enhanced information sharing for older adults. The groups continue working to identify change goals, which vary depending on each community’s needs.
“What we say here and what’s learned here should go out into the public, into the streets, into our families, into our communities” - ECO Group participant
CORE is also helping to highlight factors and strategies that seem to bolster the groups’ effectiveness, such as clear meeting structures, shared leadership and facilitation, and creating welcoming environments that accommodate participants’ preferences and needs.
Going forward
As the ECO Groups refine their priorities and move toward developing solutions, our next round of interviews with participants, staff, and funders will reveal additional insights to help the groups advocate for their priorities and long-term sustainability. This work will continue through 2025. Furthermore, the lessons from this work can potentially inform and inspire future cohorts of ECO Groups and others pursuing similar initiatives.
This is just the beginning for the Advancing Health Equity in Aging Initiative, but it’s a promising step toward ensuring that older adults are heard and empowered to shape healthier and more equitable communities.
For more information about this initiative, visit The SCAN Foundation’s website.
Learn more about CORE at our website.