OpportunityTitle: Technical Assistance Resource Center: Promoting Appropriate Long Term Care Supports for LGBT Elders
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: The successful applicant must have demonstrated expertise in working with LGBT populations.  In addition, the successful applicant must have documented experience in the provision of training and technical assistance on a national basis or has a formal relationship with an organization that has this experience.
Description: BackgroundThe Older Americans Act (OAA), the authorizing legislation for the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), provides guidance to AoA and the Aging Network on the provision of supports and services to older adults. In providing that guidance, Congress directs the Aging Network to pay particular attention in the provision of services to those older individuals with the greatest economic and social need including minority individuals. In fulfilling that obligation, AoA frequently turns to national aging organizations for support in assisting the Aging Network in their efforts to work with specific minority populations. For the last several years, for example, AoA has funded national organizations to provide training and technical assistance on providing supports and services to African Americans, Hispanic populations, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. With the full support and encouragement of the current Administration, AoA now recognizes that older gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals represent a community with unique needs that must be addressed. Towards this end, AoA has recently added information to the AoA website on resources related to LGBT aging issues (http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/AoA_Programs/Tools_Resources/diversity.aspx#LGBT) and plans to add additional resources, including a Fact Sheet, in the near future. This funding opportunity is intended as an important first step in recognizing and addressing the unique needs of older LGBT individuals. Through the creation of a Resource Center targeting LGBT elders, AoA hopes to foster a national dialogue that brings new focus and positive action resulting in higher quality and more competent service delivery to older gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals across the nation. Problem StatementLike other older adults, LGBT seniors face a variety of issues as they strive to maintain their independence. These include health concerns, financial matters, and a variety of social issues. Like other underserved populations, LGBT individuals also face a number of unique challenges as they grow older. Many of these challenges result when older LGBT individuals begin to seek supports and services to assist them as they strive to age in place in their homes and communities. LGBT seniors are a largely invisible population. Little is known about older LGBT people because very few studies on older adults and aging include a focus on sexual orientation or gender identity. Experts estimate that there are between 1.75 and 4 million LGBT individuals aged 60 and older but those numbers are simply based on the widespread assumption that between 3 and 8 percent of the overall population is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Data that does exist seems to suggest that many among the current cohort of older gays and lesbians are closeted even to family and health care providers. There is also some evidence that LGBT seniors are more likely to live alone than their heterosexual counterparts, further contributing to a sense of isolation. Most long-term care for older adults is provided informally by family members. Individuals who have never had children, including many LGBT individuals, may be less likely to have informal caregivers available to assist them. They may instead be more dependent on long term supports and services provided by community organizations. Planning ahead for future long-term care needs may be of particular importance, therefore, for older LGBT individuals. Many aging services providers may simply be unfamiliar with LGBT individuals and the special needs they may have. In other cases, homophobia and anti-gay bias may prevent some LGBT seniors from receiving the health and social services they need. Discrimination against LGBT individuals by nursing homes, senior centers and other health and social services providers has been reported across the country. In recognition of discrimination against this population, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced plans to conduct a nationwide survey on housing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. Many LGBT elders experience ageism within the gay community itself. For many LGBT individuals being old is less attractive, less sexy, of less value and therefore of little to no importance. For seniors already dealing with the impact of anti-gay bias, the impact of ageism from within the gay community can be devastating. While few communities have organizations specifically designed to serve LGBT individuals, where LGBT organizations do exist, there are limited programs and services designed to serve our LGBT elders. Purpose, Objectives and Use of FundsTo begin to address the unique challenges faced by older LGBT adults, AoA intends to fund a national resource center designed to provide national, state and local organizations, including those with a primary mission of serving LGBT individuals, with the information and technical assistance they need to effectively serve older gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. The development of an AoA funded Resource Center is the first step in laying the groundwork necessary to bring about culture change both within the aging services network as well as within the LGBT community. Through the efforts of the Resource Center the capacity of both service networks will be enhanced to better meet the needs of older gay men, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender individuals. Towards this end, the Resource Center will have three primary objectives as listed below. AoA encourages applicants to be creative and innovative as they design their approach. &#149; Educate mainstream aging services organizations about the existence and special needs of LGBT eldersAccessing housing, health care or social services can present special challenges for LGBT elders either because mainstream service providers are simply unaware of their unique needs or due to homophobia and discrimination. LGBT couples face additional barriers due to institutionalized heterosexism inherent in many national, state and local policies and regulations. The Resource Center must partner with national, state and local entities to create education programs and other interventions designed to educate mainstream providers and ensure more culturally competent service delivery. &#149; Sensitize LGBT organizations about the existence and special needs of older adultsAgeism is common in popular culture in general, but may be particularly prevalent in the gay community. Youth and beauty are valued and older individuals may not feel welcome in the visible LGBT community. Many existing LGBT service organizations focus on youth and have not developed programming targeted to the older members of their community. The Resource Center will work with national state and local LGBT organizations to educate them about the needs of LGBT elders and how to develop programs to meet their unique needs. &#149; Educate LGBT individuals about the importance of planning ahead for future long-term care needsMany of the challenges faced by LGBT elders may be due to the fact that they often do not have strong family support systems to provide needed assistance. For these and other reasons it is especially important that LGBT individuals plan ahead for future long-term care needs. About 70% of all people over the age of 65 need some sort of support and the chances of needing care increases as you age. Planning is especially important for individuals likely to need to rely on paid care rather than the assistance of family members. The Resource Center will work to promote the importance of planning for long-term care needs among LGBT individuals. One key target group of the Resource Center will be community-based LGBT organizations such as LGBT Community Centers. Local LGBT organizations can play an important role in meeting each of the objectives outlined above. Because they are local, and have an understanding of the community, including gay men and lesbians, they can serve as an effective resource for local mainstream aging service providers. Such organizations can also serve as an effective resource for local LGBT adults regarding planning for future long-term care needs. The number of communities across the country that have LGBT Community Centers or other LGBT organizations remains very limited. The Resource Center will need to develop additional ways of educating both mainstream aging organizations and LGBT elders in these communities. Applications for this initiative must include a description of how they will conduct outreach to community based LGBT organizations, state and local mainstream aging services providers and older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals across the country. This description should include an explanation of any efforts that will impact LGBT seniors living in rural and frontier areas, as well as LGBT seniors of limited economic means. AoA&#146;s national Aging Services Network comprises 56 State Units on Aging (SUA), 629 Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), 246 Tribal Organizations and thousands of service providers, caregivers, and volunteers. In addition, since 2003, nearly every state has received grants through a cooperative effort of the AoA and the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC), highly visible and trusted places where older adults and people with disabilities, regardless of income, can turn for the full range of long-term support options and streamlined access to public long-term care programs and benefits. In describing their efforts to reach mainstream aging services providers, applicants for this grant program are strongly encouraged to describe within their proposals their plans to interface with SUAs, AAA, and ADRCs. In order to most effectively accomplish the objectives of this initiative, AoA anticipates that the successful application will represent a collaborative effort of organizations with diverse areas of expertise. Collaborations might include organizations with experience in working specifically with LGBT individuals and organizations, organizations with experience in working with older adults, organizations with connections to mainstream aging services providers, organizations with expertise in evaluation and performance measurement as well as organizations with other expertise important to this initiative. Each application should describe the partner organizations and the role of each partner in the planning, development and implementation of the Resource Center. Each partner organization should include a letter of support with the application. In addition, an advisory committee can be an effective method of ensuring that diverse ideas are considered in the planning and implementation of any new project. Applicants for this opportunity should explain how they will use an advisory committee to assist their efforts and include a listing of some of the individuals or organizations that will be invited to participate. A variety of techniques and tools will be necessary for any organization to effectively address the objectives of this initiative. Information technology (IT) is particularly important for initiatives such as this that strive to reach multiple populations across the country. At a minimum, applicants must describe how they will utilize the following two tools to meet the requirements of this grant program: 1) a webpage or website; 2) webinars. Plans to use additional tools are encouraged and should be described. For example, an applicant could promote online social networking tools to reach out to rural LGBT elders or a blog to keep LGBT or mainstream organizations informed of relevant issues and activities. Using the tools and techniques described in this Program Announcement, in addition to others not described here, each applicant should explain in detail their plans for addressing each of the three objectives of this initiative. Narratives should contain a description of how the proposed plan will maximum the number of communities and LGBT seniors impacted. This description should include a separate section addressing the specific activities that will be undertaken for each of the three objectives. Applicants should describe resources that will be developed to achieve each objective. A number of publicly available resources currently exist that will assist the Resource Center in meeting the requirements of this grant. Some of these are described at the end of this narrative. Applicants should describe the existing resources they plan to use as well as any efforts they will undertake to discover additional resources that may be available to them once the funding is received. Evaluation is an important component of any new project and allows the project administrators to understand project strengths as well as project weaknesses so as to ensure continuous improvement. Applicants for this funding opportunity should include a comprehensive plan that describes their proposal to evaluate and report project performance and effectiveness. This plan should include measurable outcomes that will result from this project and that demonstrate the benefit to LGBT seniors as well as to provider organizations including LGBT organizations. Applicants should budget for travel for at least one face-to-face meeting with AoA during the first year of the grant. That meeting may occur in Washington, DC or at a national conference depending on opportunities that arise. As noted above, a number of resources exist that may assist the applicant in developing their proposal as well as assist the grantee once a Resource Center has been funded. Below are listed a few of those resources. &#149; The National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information &#150; www.longtermcare.gov. This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services resource can be useful for both consumers and professionals in understanding long term care and the importance of advance planning. &#149; The National Center for Benefits Outreach and Enrollment &#150; www.centerforbenefits.gov. This AoA funded technical assistance resource center includes a regularly updated resource page that may be of assistance in thinking through outreach techniques and other activities of the national Resource Center for LGBT elders. &#149; Administration on Aging Diversity webpage - http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/AoA_Programs/Tools_Resources/diversity.aspx. &#149; &#147;America&#146;s Diversity Guide&#148; an online resource of the National Association of State Units on Aging - http://www.nasua.org/issues/tech_assist_resources/national_aging_ir_support_ctr/diversity_guide/index.html. &#149; Below are links to just a few of the existing AoA funded resource centers that may be useful to applicants as well as the successful grantee in understanding the variety of techniques that can be used in the provision of training and technical assistance. o Native American Programs Resource Center &#150; www.olderindians.org. o The Aging and Disability Resource Center Technical Assistance Exchange &#150; www.adrc-tae.org. o The Center for Healthy Aging &#150; www.healthyagingprograms.org.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Rebecca.mann@aoa.gov
GrantorContactText: Rebecca Mann &lt;br/&gt;Grants Management Specialist &lt;br/&gt;