Social Work Month: Celebrating the Essential Workers Who Make New York A Better Place to Age

March is Social Work Month and at LiveOn NY, we celebrate our members who are essential to the work we do in making New York a better to age. Throughout the pandemic, social workers in the human services sector have been on the frontlines working tirelessly to ensure all New Yorkers have the support they need.

Here are quotes from some of our members on what moved them to become social workers and their experience as an essential worker.

LiveOn NY Stands in Solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Community

NEW YORK — March 19, 2021 —  LiveOn NY stands in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community, in light of the recent murders in Atlanta. We mourn and honor the lives tragically taken this week. For too long, Asian American and Pacific Islanders have been the target of violence, harassment, and discrimination in our nation including New York.

Throughout the pandemic, we have seen a rise in egregious acts of violence against the AAPI community. These acts of hate can not be tolerated. We must speak up, take action and stand together in unity as we root out the hate that is deeply entrenched in our nation.

We urge the City and State to show its commitment to the AAPI community by investing in community-based organizations in New York that help move the community forward. At LiveOn NY, our mission has long been to make New York a better place to age for everyone. We stand firm in our support with the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community and our commitment to building a safer, more equitable and inclusive New York for all ages.

About LiveOn NY

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver supports, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age. For more information, please visit our website, https://www.liveon-ny.org/

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Reframing the Way We Think About Aging in New York City

LiveOn NY and the Reframing Aging Initiative launch a new communication strategy in NYC to shift the way New Yorkers understand aging and older people 

For Immediate Release

NEW YORK — March 9, 2021 — As we age, we are presented with new challenges and the need to create solutions that better support older people. Today, the senior advocacy organization LiveOn NY announced a partnership with the Reframing Aging Initiative, which is a multi-year strategy to counteract ageism and improve the way policymakers, stakeholders, and the public think about aging and older people. New York City currently is home to more than 1.8 million people over the age of 60 living across the five boroughs.

We all age yet public perception around aging and older people is often a cycle of negative stereotypes, assumptions and misconceptions. Ageism — discrimination based on age — is a reality that impacts older adults every day with 82 percent of older adults experiencing one form of ageism daily , according to a recent survey by the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging.

The Reframing Aging Initiative takes a holistic approach using an evidence-based communication strategy as the core to create collective change in public discourse, policies and practices. It is led by The Gerontological Society of America on behalf of the Leaders of Aging Organizations collaborative.

In partnership with LiveOn NY, the initiative is training a cohort of 30 facilitators — advocates, aging services professionals, and community leaders who will be the catalysts of change in reframing aging in New York. By the end of the training, the facilitators will be equipped to lead the aging field to create systemic change through community engagement, targeted communications, and advocacy.

“Across the country, we have seen the power of Reframing Aging through research-based solutions to shift the way we think about aging and older people,” said Allison Nickerson, Executive Director of LiveOn NY. “This initiative in New York City will drive the mission forward to create a more robust age-integrated society that celebrates the contributions of older adults as well as build greater support for community-based aging services and policy solutions that allow older adults to truly thrive and age in their communities.” 

Patricia M. D’Antonio, project director of the Reframing Aging Initiative and vice president for policy and professional affairs at GSA, said she is excited to be embarking on this co-venture.

“With LiveOn NY and other aging organizations tapping into the energy and ingenuity that New Yorkers are known for, this city will be a supportive and dynamic place to age. The Reframing Aging Initiative welcomes the opportunity to work with LiveOn NY to create a model for cities across the country.”

Press Contacts:

LiveOn NY: Brianna Paden-Williams, Communications and Policy Associate, bpaden-williams@liveon-ny.org

The Gerontological Society of America: Todd Kluss, Director of Communications, tkluss@geron.org

About LiveOn NY

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver supports, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age. For more information, please visit our website, https://www.liveon-ny.org/

About the Reframing Aging Initiative

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.  For more information, visit www.reframingaging.org.  

About The Gerontological Society of America (GSA)

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,500+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society.

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Testimony on the NYC Fiscal Year 2022 Preliminary Budget

We’re proud to testify to the New York City Council to ensure that the strengths, as well as the needs, of older adults are consistently heard and prioritized by New York’s elected officials. Below is testimony submitted by LiveOn NY.

To learn more about upcoming New York City Council hearings: click here.
To register to testify: click here.
To watch live and past hearings: view here.

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New York City Council
Committee on Finance: Chair, Council Member Chin
Committee on Contracts: Chair, Council Member Kallos
Subcommittee on Capital: Chair, Council Member Gibson
March 3, 2021
Preliminary Budget Hearing - Finance

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Fiscal Year 2022 Preliminary Budget.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home-delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver supports, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

For decades, LiveOn NY has come to the City prior to budget adoption to highlight the importance of the aging services network, and to share the fact that, despite providers work in communities across our City, the Department for the Aging (DFTA) budget remains at less than ½ of 1% of the overall budget. Even with a growing, increasingly diverse older adult population, this has yet to be redressed. In fact, in recent years, providers have been promised millions of dollars in funding for Senior Centers that never came to be allocated, while also experiencing significant cuts and uncertainty to the much needed Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) initiative.

Amidst this, providers confronted a pandemic that put older adults at the greatest risk, not only to the virus, but also to the negative health impacts of extended periods of isolation while staying home to avoid infection. In response to these threats, providers worked to change their service models virtually overnight, shifting to reaching clients via phone, setting up zoom classes, enrolling clients in new emergency food systems, navigating new vaccine systems, and continuing to be a resource to older adults across the City. This work has been critical, as isolation is now understood to be a significant health risk and predictor of morbidity.

The workers who provided these services - from home-delivered meals, to Senior Centers, to case management - are, and will always remain, essential. It’s time for the City to enact a more equitable budget that holistically supports these professionals that work tirelessly to ensure that no older New Yorker falls through the cracks. Rather than bolstering their work, for too long the City has created cracks in the foundation of nonprofits by eroding the sustainability of their funding, which puts not only these organizations at risk, but our communities and our neighbors.

Given this, the following investments are critical to turning the tide towards a truly equitable City for all ages.

Critical Investments in the Department for the Aging (DFTA) Services

LiveOn NY requests $16.6 million be added to the funding available for home-delivered meals, in order to increase capacity to meet new demand and increase the per-meal rate to the national average. Even following a recent Request for Proposals, the City continues its inadequate reimbursement for culturally competent home-delivered meals. Today, all home-delivered meals remain funded below at roughly $2 less per meal the national average. Further, COVID-19 has demonstrated significant increases to the demand for home-delivered meals, with providers now serving more older adults than ever, with thousands of new clients being added to the service since March.

The City must fully allocate the promised $10 million in funding for Senior Center staff, and $5 million in funding for Senior Center kitchen staff. These funds, which were not included in the Mayor’s preliminary budget, were promised to organizations prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reneged in the midst of this pandemic, despite older adults being most vulnerable to the virus. Such funding is particularly critical to serve the older immigrant population, as lack of funds can hinder an organization’s ability to hire or retain bilingual staff necessary to best serve LEP older adults. Studies have found that salary increases expected for bilingual professionals ranges from 5-20%, amounts that may be just out of reach within Senior Centers current shoe-string budget. Further, this funding is particularly important to ensure that wages for senior service professionals, a workforce made up of predominantly women and people of color, are paid competitively for their work, rather than exacerbating existing inequalities. Without resolution, the City will continue to underpay this workforce, heightening the risk of more New Yorkers aging into poverty, and of providers of aging services coming to need the very services they now dedicate their lives to making available.

LiveOn NY recommends that the City increase its investment in the technology infrastructure of Senior Center and other DFTA providers. LiveOn NY and our members have seen the ways that lack of access to technology limits the ability for older adults to remain engaged and connected in our communities. For example, lack of access limits one’s ability to connect to virtual programming, heightening the risk of isolation. Further, lack of access means missing out on real time information, such as best practices in regards to COVID, how to access food or the vaccine, and online job opportunities. One of LiveOn NY’s members, PSS, surveyed their more than 700 older adult participants, and found lowest tech use and comfort among their Senior Center program attendees, with many having no personal means to access the internet. Many clients reported having only a basic cell phone as their technology infrastructure. These findings underscore the need to increase technology access funding targeted to the Department for the Aging network.

Continued discretionary and one-time executive funding. Many programs, particularly smaller, hyper-local nonprofits that serve hard-to-reach senior populations rely on discretionary funding to ensure their communities can be served. Therefore, it is critical that all aging services discretionary and one-time Executive funding be restored in the Executive, and subsequent Adopted Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

Critical Investments Across Human Services Contracts

The human services sector stepped up to meet the need of New Yorkers in crisis despite the fact we faced a funding crisis long before our City saw its first case of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the New York City government did not step up to support us in the same way. The City is not getting a deal by chronically underfunding and retroactively cutting human services contracts to balance the budget; it is further harming the low wage workers the City relies on to keep these programs running while pushing community-rooted nonprofits towards failure during a time of increased need. Throughout the last calendar year, the City has allowed the COLA for human services workers to expire in the middle of the pandemic by not renewing it in the FY21 budget, failed to provide comprehensive emergency pay for low-wage City-contracted frontline workers, and created fiscal chaos for the sector by retroactively cutting the Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) Funding Initiative. 

In order to address this crisis, the FY22 budget must include the following investments across the human services portfolio, including within Department for the Aging (DFTA) contracts: 

1. Sufficient funding to fully honor the ICR Funding Initiative for FY20, FY21, and going forward. Recent cuts to the ICR Initiative have significantly threatened the viability of New York City’s nonprofit human service providers, leaving current senior service providers scrambling to pay staff and get by. To truly support nonprofits through COVID-19 and beyond, the City must reverse course and fully implement the ICR Initiative, including full funding of ICRs within HDM contracts, and all DFTA and human services contracts;

2. The restoration of the COLA on the personnel services line of all human services contracts at a rate of at least 3%; and

3. Comprehensive emergency pay for human services workers retroactive to March 23, 2020, when non-essential workers in New York were ordered to stay home.

These urgent investments are needed while workers, advocates, providers, and elected officials continue to work together on more comprehensive solutions to ensure that human services workers finally earn fair pay for their essential labor.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and for all support of the investments outlined in the above. We look forward to continuing to share information on the need for broader support of aging and human services, and hope to find resolution to these budgetary shortfalls in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

LiveOn NY Testimony on COVID and Seniors

We’re proud to testify to the New York City Council to ensure that the strengths, as well as the needs, of older adults are consistently heard and prioritized by New York’s elected officials. Below is testimony submitted by LiveOn NY to the New York City Council Committees on Aging and Technology.

To learn more about upcoming New York City Council hearings: click here. To register to testify: click here. To watch live and past hearings: view here!

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New York City Council
Committee on Health: Chair, Council Member Levine
Committee on Aging: Chair, Council Member Chin
Committee on Technology: Chair, Council Member Holden
February 17, 2021
Oversight - COVID-19 and Seniors: Addressing Equity, Access to the Vaccine, and Scheduling Vaccination Appointments Online in NYC

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on COVID and Seniors: Protecting Older Adults in the Community.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver supports, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across New York, creating a rippling effect exposing the current political, economic, and social gaps that impact older New Yorkers. These must be confronted both as we continue to respond to the pandemic, but in undertaking the COVID-19 mass vaccination effort.

Vaccine Recommendations

Today, we have the opportunity to bring this life-saving vaccine to thousands of older adults and slow down the pandemic in its tracks. Yet despite eligibility for older people 65 and over, we continue to see the gaps and inequities as access to the vaccine remains nearly impossible for many, particularly for people of color who have shouldered the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The time is now to commit to older New Yorkers and remove the barriers that have pushed out communities. Unfortunately, LiveOn NY and our members have seen the hurdles older adults have experienced to simply get a shot, and distribution has also revealed the racial inequities that already plague communities of color. As it stands, Black and brown residents, who represent 22% of the City’s population, have only received 9% of the vaccines.

Given these realities, there is much work to be done. We do, however, want to take a moment to thank all those who are working tirelessly to ensure older adults can get vaccinated. Specifically, we thank the Vaccine Command Center for their continuous effort to coordinate the vaccine distribution across the City and we applaud the recent launch of the homebound seniors initiative to ensure older adults who are unable to travel to vaccine sites have the opportunity to receive the shot. 

To ensure a more equitable distribution of the vaccine moving forward, LiveOn NY recommends the City:

• Work in coordination with community-based organizations that are often sources of trust to marginalized populations to promote access to the vaccine,  and can provide the necessary information to ensure no one is left behind. 

• Move away from an over-reliance on technology, including removing the requirement for each vaccine appointment be made using a different email address, which prohibits professionals from assisting multiple seniors using the same account.

• Ensure information is available across languages

• Monitor and improve the vaccine registration process, including: phone wait times and the numerous web systems and pages each older adult must navigate

• Make clear vaccine eligibility of senior service professionals, including: home-delivered meal cooks and deliverers, service coordinators and maintenance workers in senior housing, home care attendants, and caregivers who are the unseen, underappreciated heroes throughout this pandemic. 

• Fully fund providers and professionals for their work.

Now is the time to create an efficient and equitable vaccination program that ensures no one is left behind and all older New Yorkers can safely age in their communities. 

COVID-19 Response Recommendations

Older New Yorkers who have stayed home for extended periods to remain safe from the virus, need a clear plan, guided by science, as to when it will be safe to reengage with the community services they know and love. Many spent the Summer, a period of low transmission risk, hoping their local Senior Center would one day open, not knowing if this would be the case, or why it would not be the case if restaurants, gyms, bars, and other services could resume operation. These individuals and the professionals that serve them deserve clarity, transparency, and the comfort of knowing their services are prioritized and guided by science as New York emerges from this crisis. 

Therefore, LiveOn NY recommends a plan be created jointly by the Department of Health and Mental Health (DOHMH) and the Department for the Aging (DFTA), and that such plan should:

• Be balanced against the fact that, in addition to the risk of COVID-19, the impacts of isolation also pose considerable risks to the older adult population.

• Be guided by the fact that the older adult population is not a monolith experiencing the risk of COVID-19 uniformly, but an age cohort spanning multiple decades of significant variations in overall health and risk level.

• Quantify the health indicators that will need to be met in order to resume in-person senior services, including services at Senior Centers and NORCs.

• Include clear guidance on metrics that must be met, or other rationale, indicating the ability to resume in-person services from a public health perspective. A sample metric could indicate a maximum threshold for the citywide infection rate, which once reached, would trigger the allowance of grab and go meal service to resume.

• Identify the order in which the resumption of in-person services can be phased in. For example, we have seen restaurants deemed safe enough to offer outdoor dining, followed by indoor dining at a specific capacity and with specific social distancing requirements as risk levels went down. Senior services require similar guidance.

  • Given the varying risks associated with each activity, the following components of a Senior Center should each be given individualized guidance: grab-and-go meal distribution, indoor dining, one-on-one case assistance with clients, outdoor programming (potentially at local parks as the weather changes), and indoor programming.

• Be posted on each agency's websites and shared with City Council, non-profit providers, older adults, and other stakeholders. 

• Be released as soon as is practicable, taking into account community input, including input of providers, upon drafting.

In addition to such a plan, providers must be fully reimbursed for cleaning and other costs incurred to ensure safety upon the resumption of each service.

We appreciate the consideration of the recommendations, and look forward to working with the City to reauthorize in-person Senior Services at an appropriate time.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.