|
NJAAW News and Resources
March 5, 2025
| |
|
NJAAW's 27th Annual Conference:
The Faces of Aging
Friday, May 16, 9am - 3pm
New Brunswick
We are pleased to announce that registration is open for this year's conference, "The Faces of Aging."
Details are being updated frequently, so be sure to visit our conference webpage for the latest: The Faces of Aging.
Confirmed panels include:
- Face Value: Appreciating Differences Across Generations
- Fraud and Scams Targeting Older Adults.
- Empowering the Older Adult: A Path to Holistic Well-Being Through a Mental Health Lense
- Enhancing Law Enforcement Engagement with Older Adults: A Collaborative Policing Approach
- The Face of Food Insecurity
- Supporting Older Adults with Hearing Loss
- Aging Alone: Addressing the Needs and Challenges of Solo Agers in New Jersey
Early bird registration ends March 14. Register: here
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Click here: sponsor opportunities or email ASullivan@njaaw.org
| |
|
Reviving a New Jersey Association of Senior Centers
NJAAW is exploring an opportunity to re-establish the NJ Association of Senior Centers. If you are a director, manager or organizer of a senior center in NJ, please help us by taking this brief survey. Click here: Survey
You can also send any comments, questions or suggestions to office@njaaw.org.
Thank you!
| |
Seeking Participants for Alzheimer's, Walking/Balance and Brain Health Studies | | |
We are excited to see 3 studies on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) currently underway in New Jersey. Please share this information with your networks to help forward the research on Alzheimer's and find participants in these important studies. | | |
|
Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD, is leading a study on NJ residents age 45-70, of South Asian or Middle Eastern/North African origins, who have a parent with ADRD.
To download and share the flyer with details for the study, click here: SAMENA Study Flyer
| |
|
Kessler is seeking participants for a study assessing the effectiveness of combining thinking tasks with walking
training to improve walking and balancing ability in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.
Click here for flyer: Kessler
| |
|
Stockton University's EEG lab is looking for participants for a study on personality and brain health.
Click here to see Stockton
| |
Age-Friendly Movement in NJ | |
AFNJ Travel Symposium
Thursday, April 3
9:30-noon
Location: Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest
901 Route 10, Whippany
Join us for an exciting in-person event with NJTIP@ Rutgers!
This free symposium will include several transportation presenters, including NJTTIP @ Rutgers, EZ Ride, AAA Car Fit and NJ Transit.
Meet and talk to transportation providers that can help bring more transportation options to North Jersey communities.
This event is free and open to all working to expand transportation options for older adults. We encourage you to extend an invitation to your town's key transportation personnel, senior advisory committees, & others who can benefit from learning more about older adult mobility options and opportunities in Northern NJ.
To register, click here: Registration
| |
| |
|
Building a Resource Guide for
Age-Friendly Communities
ICYMI: See the recording of February's AFNJ meeting with examples of resource guides for older adults.
| | |
Research on NJ's Age Friendly Communities
It Made Me Change the Way I Do Business: Outcomes From Age-Friendly Community Initiatives as Systems Change
The research team at the Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration, Emily Greenfield and Natalie Pope, recently published a report on the accomplishments of NJ's age-friendly communities and their impact on systems change:
"Since the early 2000s, a global age-friendly communities (AFC) movement has called for improving the built, social, and service environments of localities for aging. Yet research on the outcomes of AFC initiatives, as programmatic efforts toward AFC progress, remains in its nascence. Drawing on “The Water of Systems Change” framework, our study aimed to address this gap by exploring the extent to which accomplishments of AFC initiatives are indicative of altering six conditions for systems change: policies, organizational practices, resource allocations, power dynamics, relationships, and mental models."
To read the full article in The Gerontologist, click here: Article
| | | |
National Slam the Scam Day
March 6, 2025
Help protect yourself and your community this Slam the Scam Day by:
1.Learning about the latest scams. Information can empower you to quickly recognize a scam. Signs of a scam include:
- An unexpected problem or offer of a prize or benefit increase,
- Pressure to act immediately, and
- A request for an unusual payment like cryptocurrency, gift cards, gold bars, and wire transfers, even with the promise of keeping your money “safe.”
2.Reporting scams as soon as possible. Victims shouldn’t be embarrassed if they shared personal information or suffered a financial loss - we are all vulnerable.
3.Sharing this Scam Alert fact sheet and helping educate others about how to protect themselves.
4.Report Social Security-related scams to the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General Report a scam
Visit www.ssa.gov/scam or oig.ssa.gov for more information.
| |
|
|
Protect Medicaid Rally
Thursday, March 6, 2025
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
NJ State House Annex
145 West State St., Trenton, NJ
The New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities is deeply concerned with reports of federal budget cuts that will negatively impact Medicaid funding affecting 1.9 million New Jerseyans, including people with disabilities, low-income senior citizens, and home and community-based services that keep people out of more restrictive and expensive skilled nursing facilities.
The NJ Protect Medicaid Coalition is organizing a rally to advocate against these cuts and protect vital services and programs. To learn more, click: here
| | | |
|
March 11, 2025 , 9:30am - 12:30pm
This interactive, virtual training will introduce participants to the concept of implicit bias. Participants will consider how implicit bias manifests interpersonally and systemically and explore strategies to address implicit bias. Participants will also learn about the NJ Law Against Discrimination and how it protects individuals from discrimination and bias-based harassment in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations.
Approved for NJ Real Estate CEs
Register here
| | |
|
Alzheimer's Research and the SAMENA Cohort Study
An interview with Michal Beeri, PhD
Learn about this New Jersey based research project exploring Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (ARDR) at Rutgers’ Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center. Focusing on NJ residents of South Asian or Middle Eastern/North African origins, this study seeks to improve understanding of and treatment for people with ADRD from these under-represented communities.
Principal Investigator Dr. Michal Beeri, discusses this study as well as the importance of understanding the impact of culture, ethnicity, diet and genetics on disease and treatment options.
This study is currently seeking volunteer participants!
| |
NJ DHS to Expand PACE Program
The N.J. Department of Human Services has issued two requests for proposals to establish a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in Hunterdon County and in Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties, the remaining counties currently without a PACE program.
PACE provides comprehensive medical and social services to individuals in a community-based center and in their homes meeting specific criteria:
- an individual must be 55 years of age or older,
- meet clinical eligibility, be able to live safely in the community at the time of enrollment (with the help of PACE services) and
- must reside in the service area of the program.
“PACE connects older residents with specific health needs to vital health and social services that can help delay or avoid admission to long-term care facilities. This is the last step to achieving our goal of expanding PACE as an option to older adults in every county of New Jersey,” said Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman.
To learn more, click: here
| | |
|
Combined Applications for
NJ Property Tax Relief Program
New Jersey is introducing it first-ever combined application form for three separate relief programs. The combined application will allow seniors and disabled homeowners to apply for ANCHOR and Senior Freeze programs, as well as the upcoming Stay NJ program, without having to fill out separate applications for each program. And by early March, paper copies of the combined application — dubbed "PAS-1" — will be mailed to more than 1 million households.
The PAS-1 form can be accessed here: PAS-1 form
To read the full story from NJ Spotlight News, click: here
| |
Last year's survey of older adults gave us significant insight into the minds of New Jersey’s residents over the age of 60. Covering transportation, housing, communications, social connections and health status, more than 1400 residence told us about their challenges, strengths, and concerns as they age. See the recording of a report on the findings from the survey and join an open discussion on the lessons learned. | |
Applications Accepted through April 15
The Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program is currently accepting applications for its next cohort. The one-year Fellowship runs from October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026 and has full-time and part-time tracks. It is conducted as a hybrid program of mentoring, networking, learning and practicum experiences. Health and Aging Policy Fellows work across diverse fields of aging and develop lifelong partnerships and networks. Individually and collectively, they are improving the lives of older adults around the country. Note - this year's program includes a track for behavioral health.
- Submission deadline: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
- Fellowship begins October 1, 2025
For more information, click: here
| | |
|
|
NJ Future Publishes New Report: Weathering the Storms
Creating Aging-Friendly Communities Amid Climate Change
As a coastal state, New Jersey faces rising sea levels, stronger storms, and increased inland flooding, as seen with Superstorm Sandy (2012) and storms Isaias (2020) and Ida (2021).
Older adults, age 65+, face heightened risks from extreme weather and greater challenges adapting. This report by NJ Future's Tim Evans examines the 285,000 residents aged 65+ in flood-prone areas, assesses the difficulties confronting them whether they choose to remain in place or relocate, and outlines actions for state and local governments to expand climate-resilient, aging-friendly communities.
Read the report here: Weathering the Storms
| | |
A Time Before Vaccines:
Firsthand Reflections
A few years ago, I had the unique opportunity to work with Maplewood Health Department’s Candice Davenport on a project to interview older residents about their memories of "A Time Before Vaccines." This oral history shares the personal memories of residents growing up in a time before vaccines, and how now preventable diseases like polio, diphtheria and measles affected their lives.
This mini-film seems even more relevant today. As Davenport stated recently: "The warning from past lived experiences in this video are now more important than ever as we are reminded that these diseases can impact not just an individual but also the health and wellbeing of entire communities.
As we are watching multiple outbreaks of measles occur in the U.S., including the first measles death of an unvaccinated school aged child in a decade, may we always remember a time before vaccinations and be vigilant not to repeat the past."
This short film is the collection of stories from people who remember what is was like to live in a time before modern vaccines prevented deadly and disforming diseases, told in their own words.
| |
SNAP in New Jersey
See who SNAP cuts would impact in New Jersey.
Download the flyer here: NJ SNAP Fact Sheet
| |
NJ State Development & Redevelopment Plan Update
The New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan (State Plan) is in the process of being updated. This process is overseen by the Office of Planning Advocacy (OPA) staff and the State Planning Commission (SPC). Over the past year, thousands of New Jersey residents weighed in with comments, concerns and suggestions. The Preliminary State Plan is now available for review and can be accessed here: Preliminary plan
You can help make the State Plan update a success by providing feedback on the draft Plan, via email at stateplan.comments@sos.nj.gov or in person, at one of a series of public meetings, one in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties.
To find meetings and to share comments and input, click here
NJAAW appreciates the recognition and attention the Preliminary Plan gives to New Jersey’s aging population, with suggestions on how to prepare for our changing state in terms of housing, equity and a special section titled "PLANNING FOR THE CHALLENGES OF AN AGING NEW JERSEY."
| |
|
Is our information useful to you? Then please consider a financial contribution today. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, New Jersey Advocates for Aging Well relies on foundation grants and other donations to fund our work. We welcome your support, your suggestions and your input for advocating for NJ's oldest residents as we celebrate our 25th anniversary and strategize for the next 25 years. | | | | |
