As the Foundation moves forward with our new grantmaking strategy, we are highlighting how our grantee partners are bringing this work to life in communities across California. Through their voices, we are exploring what it looks like to catalyze equitable change in health and social care systems and, where possible, hear directly from older adults about the impact these efforts are having on their lives.
Last month, we invited some of our national grantee partners to speak with our Board and staff about their community-based work in California, how the Foundation can best support that work, and how, together, we can build a better future — one that ensures that all older adults thrive as they age. This piece was adapted from our conversation with community leaders Raymond A. Jetson from Aging While Black, Clayton Fong from the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, and Yanira Cruz from the National Hispanic Council on Aging.
This post was written in collaboration with Yanira Cruz, Clayton Fong, and Raymond Jetson.
At a moment when the systems that support older adults are under strain, some leaders are asking a deeper question: How can we strengthen our advocacy through activism and social action? Their answers vary, but they begin at the grassroots. They see organizing and community connection as animating forces of this empowered advocacy, as well as an antidote to disconnection. They recognize the authentic power of lived experience and expertise.
In California communities and across the country, older adults are navigating rising costs, shifting policies, and growing uncertainty about the programs, services, and care they rely on. We believe the solutions to these challenges already exist within the communities where older adults live. They are embodied by the voices, stories, and leadership of older adults who have too often been left out of decision-making spaces.
Aging While Black, the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, and the National Hispanic Council on Aging exemplify these ideas in action. Together, their work reflects a shared commitment to centering community voice, building power, and shaping systems that honor dignity across the lifespan.
Lived Experience Is Expertise
For Raymond A. Jetson, founder of Aging While Black, the work begins with a simple but transformative premise: we should not have policy discussions about Black elders without Black elders in the room. They should be a part of the conversations that shape their experiences.
Aging While Black is a national movement that centers the wellbeing, wisdom, and lived experience of Black elders at the intersection of aging and race. As a newer organization, Aging While Black is intentionally redefining how the field understands aging by shifting from deficit-based narratives to asset-based ones. The stories we hear about Black aging, Jetson notes, are often incomplete. They overlook fortitude, contribution, and the deep cultural knowledge that elders carry.
“First and foremost,” for Aging While Black, says Jetson, “is advancing a different narrative and world view of Black aging because we believe that people live up to the stories they hear and the messaging that they receive. We live in a world where the narrative about aging while Black in America is deeply rooted in deficits and that’s not the whole story. We believe that a critical component of our work is advancing a very different world view, not to deny the truth, but one that speaks in asset frames.”
The work of Aging While Black has three pillars — Recalibrate the Village, Embrace Innovation, and Lean into Sankofa — which together offer a practice-grounded framework for change. Recalibrating the Village calls for redesigning systems so that Black elders can age in place with dignity. Embracing Innovation ensures that emerging technologies and policies include, rather than exclude, Black communities. Leaning into Sankofa reminds us to draw from cultural memory to inform our future.
“When you have older adults intricately involved in what you are doing, they are able to give voice in ways that systems are not used to hearing.”
Beyond this framework, Aging While Black’s approach is deeply relational. “We create entry points for engagement, inviting elders into conversations about caregiving, brain health, and social connectedness in ways that are place-based and community-driven,” adds Jetson. “Older adults are not simply participants. They are culture keepers, co-designers, and architects, helping to validate what is true and shaping what comes next.”
Expanding Access and Opportunity
For Clayton Fong, President and CEO of the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA), the question is not only who is being served, but who is being left behind.
NAPCA works to preserve and promote the dignity and wellbeing of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander older adults, many of whom face significant barriers due to language access and limited familiarity with complex health and social care systems. Through a network of more than 300 community-based organizations, NAPCA connects older adults to job training, economic opportunities, and critical benefits.
At a time when many grassroots networks feel strained, Fong emphasizes the importance of rebuilding infrastructure and trust. Federal programs now under attack like the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), for example, provide more than income. They create pathways for purpose, community connection, and redefined notions of retirement. Fong notes, “Stories matter…and we’d be remiss in this moment if we don’t give voice to what older adults are experiencing” in programs like SCSEP.
Equally critical is NAPCA’s multilingual helpline, which offers support in multiple languages for Medicare enrollment, low-income subsidies, and other essential services. For many older adults, language is the first barrier and often the most isolating. Meeting people where they are, in the language they speak, is foundational to equity.
Fong also points to the importance of working across differences. Progress requires collaboration, even in challenging times. It means recognizing allies, building bridges, and ensuring that efforts to expand opportunity do not unintentionally leave communities behind.
Mobilizing Voices into Action
At the National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA), President and CEO Yanira Cruz sees storytelling as a catalyst for change.
NHCOA works to improve the lives of Latino older adults through a comprehensive approach that includes public policy, research, and community-based programs. From health and housing to economic security and caregiving, the organization addresses the full spectrum of needs affecting older adults and their families.
“We have practice at the local level,” said Cruz, “in which we implement programs in collaboration with community partners, like St. Barnabas Senior Services, locally [in Los Angeles] and the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation.”
Central to this work is a commitment to narrative change. Many older adults, Cruz notes, have never been asked to share their stories, particularly in spaces where decisions are made. NHCOA is working to change that by developing tools and training that empower older adults to speak directly about how policies shape their daily lives. One key question she asks over again in her work is: “How will this policy shape the next seven generations?”
This approach is already making a difference. Through community-based programs and advocacy efforts, older adults are stepping into leadership roles, sharing their experiences with Supplemental Security Income and access to culturally relevant services. These stories cut through confusion and misinformation, offering clarity in a landscape that can often feel overwhelming.
Cruz also emphasizes the importance of meeting the urgency of the moment while building for the long term. Efforts such as “know your rights” campaigns for immigrant communities reflect both immediate needs and a broader vision of equity and inclusion, but we must go further. The goal is not only to respond to challenges, but to ensure that future generations inherit systems that are more just and accessible.
Building a Movement for the Future
From all these organizations, a common thread emerges: lasting change requires both infrastructure and imagination.
Grassroots organizing is a sustained investment in relationships, trust, and shared purpose. It involves creating spaces where older adults feel comfortable, respected, and empowered to lead. It means supporting the organizations that communities already know and equipping them with the tools to mobilize effectively.
It also means rethinking how we define impact. Beyond programs and services provided, success can also be measured by whether older adults feel seen, heard, and valued. It can be reflected in their ability to influence policy, shape narratives, and participate fully in civic life.
At this moment, there is both urgency and opportunity. The systems we have today are not, have never been, perfect. To build something better, we must be willing to listen deeply, act collectively, and invest in the leadership of those most affected.
A Call to Act
If we are serious about building a future that extends several generations forward, we must start by listening to those who are living the reality today.
The work of Aging While Black, NAPCA, and NHCOA reminds us that older adults should not be on the margins of this conversation. They must be at its center. Their stories are not just reflections of the past. They are guides for the future.
Turning advocacy into action requires commitment, investment, and courage. It requires us to move beyond rhetoric and into relationship, to build systems that reflect our shared values, and to ensure that no one is left behind. The question before us is whether we are ready to follow the lead of those who can show us the way through their wisdom and experience.
