The Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) Annual Conference is the premier event for those working at the intersection of aging and philanthropy. As a national membership organization of philanthropies, GIA serves as a relevant and responsive network, resource, and champion, amplifying the voices of older people and issues of aging.
The annual conference is a time when all of these themes come together in one place—to share, network, and build a movement together to improve the lives of older adults.
Although we wish we could all be together in Long Beach, California for this year’s GIA Annual Conference, we are confident that the highly interactive virtual format will deliver the high-quality experience that you have come to expect from GIA. You can view the entire action-packed and informative agenda on the conference website. In addition, we’d like to take a minute to tell you about just three of the sessions we are most excited about!
Opening Plenary: Team Work: Improving Older Adults’ Health and Well-Being
October 13 at 1:15 PM ET / 10:15 AM PT
Archstone Foundation is proud to support this year’s opening plenary, focusing on quality team care as a means to improve depression care for older adults. High-quality, high-functioning health care Teams is the first of our three new core funding strategies, the Three Ts (Teams, Training, and Technology) to achieve our mission of improving the health and well-being of older Californians and their caregivers.
We know that, unfortunately, many of us face significant mental health challenges that limit our ability to live full and meaningful lives. Major depression affects up to 10% of older adults seen in primary care clinics, and up to 30% of older adults with chronic medical illnesses. This late-life disease creates personal and family stress, increases suicide risk, and inflates health care costs.
Yet, programs that base depression care in primary care have shown incredible promise.
This plenary session will tell the story of why primary care is the right place to address and treat depression, and how clinicians and researchers at the University of Washington engaged community-based organizations to extend the reach of the primary care team and drive improvements in mental health outcomes. Featured speakers Jürgen Unützer and Patricia Areán, both in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, will also discuss including older adults from underrepresented or otherwise disadvantaged groups in depression care, reducing disparities, and using technology to assist in improving access to care.
The presentation will feature real-world examples of how this collaborative model can be adapted to other chronic diseases. Unützer and Areán will also discuss solutions and ideas for funders at every level, reviewing local, community-based approaches to large-scale initiatives, as well as practical implications for sharing what worked and what didn’t so others can focus on evidence-based, systematic solutions.
This work provides a road map to the future of quality, coordinated care for older adults, one that engages older adults in their care in meaningful ways. While there will never be enough trained geriatric psychiatrists, we can use these approaches to scale-up and up-skill nurses, physician assistants, community health workers, and other paraprofessionals to meet the health needs of the older adult population.
Best of Region: Mission Driven Impact Investing
October 14 at 3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT
We also hope you will join us, along with our partners The SCAN Foundation and the Gary and Mary West Foundation, for an energizing session on mission driven impact investing.
Christopher A. Langston, Archstone Foundation’s President and CEO, will serve as moderator. The panelists will include:
- Lisa Richter, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Avivar Capital
- Sarita Mohanty, President and Chief Executive Officer, The SCAN Foundation
- John Zapolski, Founder & CEO, Alive Ventures
- Shelley Lyford, President & CEO, Gary and Mary West Foundation
This session will provide an overview of impact investing in the field of aging and detail how two California foundations are using impact investments to achieve financial return while advancing their organizational mission.
The basic principle of impact investing is that a Foundation’s corpus can be effectively used to meet a social mission and serve people in need, while also achieving a financial return. Impact investments are “…investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.” Core to this definition is the idea that investment capital and philanthropy can work in tandem and that creating economic value does not have to be mutually exclusive with creating social value (Global Impact Investing Network 2016).
Richter, an industry expert, will open the session. She will discuss real-world examples of how clients in philanthropy have successfully used a variety of impact investing strategies, including: individual transactions; full-portfolio activation; mission- and program-related investments; and hybrid approaches.
Mohanty will discuss The SCAN Foundation’s mission impact investments, including being joined by colleague Zapolski from Alive Ventures, which creates and funds brands, products, and services that help our relationships grow stronger, more joyful, and better with age. Eric Thai, The SCAN Foundation Director of Finance and Mission Impact Investments, will join for the interactive Q&A.
Lyford will provide an overview of the Gary and Mary West Foundation’s groundbreaking impact investment in Civica Rx. Civica Rx is a market-driven, not-for-profit generic drug company founded by leading health systems and three philanthropic members to address drug shortages. Civica Rx is providing patients with greater access to more affordable drugs and better, safer care.
These investments are driving positive social change while fulfilling the organization’s investment goals.
Virtual Long Beach Experience
October 14 at 5:30 PM ET / 2:30 PM PT
While we wish we could be together in person in Long Beach, California, the networking experience will bring conference attendees the next best thing: the opportunity to connect and re-connect with colleagues, share their work, and experience (virtually) some southern California sunshine!
The Virtual Long Beach Experience will be co-hosted by the local conference sponsors:
- Archstone Foundation
- The Eisner Foundation
- The SCAN Foundation
- California Health Care Foundation
- California Wellness Foundation
- Metta Fund
- The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
- The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation
- SCAN Health Plan
We are also thrilled to welcome as part of the virtual Long Beach experience a very special guest, Brian Sonja-Wallace, West Hollywood Poet Laureate!
We Hope You’ll Join Us!
In addition to these sessions, there will also be highly engaging presentations on new flexibilities in Medicare and Medicaid in light of COVID-19, creating a pipeline of diversity in the long-term services and supports sector, technology as a social determinant of health, supporting the direct care workforce, intergenerational programming, advancing health equity for persons with advanced illness and caregivers in communities of color, and many more. The conference will also feature daily networking, art interlude, and virtual site visit opportunities.
With all these and many more important sessions, we hope you’ll plan to join us for the 2021 GIA Annual Conference!
There’s still time to register and to sponsor this year’s conference! We will “see” you there!
