Our current endeavor is strengthening senior’s voices in our various communities post pandemic. Senior residents have a standing presence in many historic areaa and want to be heard as well as understood. Older adults are our largest untapped human resource, possessing a monumental amount of varied experiences along with perfected skills cultivated over a lifetime. Any elder, regardless of income, physical and/or cognitive ability, level of education, or geographic location can make a productive difference in the way all of us function as a culture. CAR has taking its cue from community advocacy pioneer Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, a multigenerational organization established in the 1970s whose mission has been to “work for social and economic justice and peace for all people.” Here is her position statement, paraphrased in the book From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald S. Miller:

“As risk-takers who can heal and humanize society, elders have five appropriate roles to play, Kuhn says. They are mentors who teach the young; mediators who resolve civil, racial, and intergenerational conflict; monitors of public bodies who serve as watchdogs of city hall and Congress; mobilizers of social change; and motivators of society who urge people away from self-interest and toward the public good.”

These are the three ways we are taking action in mobilizing the voice of our seniors.​