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About

Reframing Aging Initiative

Who We Are

The National Center to Reframe Aging (NCRA) is the central hub for the movement to reframe aging. The Reframing Aging movement is a long-term social change endeavor designed to improve the public’s understanding of what aging means and the many ways that older people contribute to our society. This greater understanding will counter ageism and guide our nation’s approach to ensuring supportive policies and programs for us all as we move through the life course. Since April 2019, the center has trained more than 100 facilitators locally on the research and fundamentals of reframing aging so they can play a key role in teaching others and changing the narrative. It also has promoted its efforts nationally, including successfully getting three major style guides used by thousands of scholars, researchers, communications professionals, journalists, students, and others to adopt bias-free language and incorporate the principles of reframing aging.

The four aims of this phase of the project are to:

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Build Infrastructure
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Engage the practice, education, and research communities
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Technical Support Services
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Engage State and Local Organizations' Efforts
  • Build an infrastructure to enable broad dissemination of the reframing aging concepts to the field of aging
  • Engage the aging research, education, and practice communities to learn about and start using the reframed communication strategies
  • Provide technical support for organizations who complete workshops and trainings
  • Support state and local efforts to reframe aging locally

What We Can Do for You

  • FrameChecks: reframing experts review your communication materials and suggest ways for improving your messages with reframed language and evidence-informed narratives.
  • Workshops and presentations: provide engaging and interactive sessions on the reframing aging concepts, narratives, and tools for your organizations and conferences.
  • Technical assistance:  reframing experts help you fine-tune your messages as a follow-up to workshops and presentations.

Brief History

The National Center to Reframe Aging began as an initiative in 2012, when eight national aging organizations gathered to address the entrenched ageism in American society.  With support from nine funders, the organizations collaborated with the social science research firm FrameWorks Institute to examine exactly what the American public thinks of aging.

Research found that the public’s perception of aging is decidedly negative and antithetical to how most older people feel and what experts in the field know to be true. In this first phase of the project, the research was conducted and the communication strategies, resources, and tools developed and tested, making way for the next phase of the work beginning in April 2019. The movement to reframe aging has sinced grown exponentially, becoming the National Center to Reframe Aging (NCRA) in 2022, the central hub for the movement to reframe aging.

The NCRA works with organizations and communities, at the local and national level, to advance and enhance the way we talk and think about aging. The NCRA is the preeminent organization for proven strategies to effectively frame aging, promote a greater understanding of aging and implicit bias; ultimately guiding our nation’s approach to ensuring supportive policies and programs for all of us as we age. The NCRA is led by The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) on behalf of the Leaders of Aging Organizations.    

Funders of the first phase of the Reframing Aging Initiative were: AARPArchstone FoundationThe Atlantic PhilanthropiesEndowment for HealthFan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels FoundationThe John A. Hartford FoundationThe Retirement Research FoundationRose Community Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation.

Contact us at reframingaging@geron.org to learn more.

About Us

The Reframing Aging Initiative is a long-term social change endeavor designed to improve the public’s understanding of what aging means and the many ways that older people contribute to our society. This greater understanding will counter ageism and guide our nation’s approach to ensuring supportive policies and programs for us all as we move through the life course.

Get In Touch

Contact Us: reframingaging@geron.org

Follow us on Twitter: @ReframingAging

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Caravan is the Reframing Aging Initiative’s bi-monthly newsletter. Six times a year, we share information, ideas, and inspiration to help our fellow travelers on our journey to improve the public's understanding of what aging means and the contributions older people bring to society. Sign up now!

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