An Innovative training and consultation program to ensure that mainstream elder service providers develop the Institutional capacity to serve LGBT clients and caregivers with dignity and respect.
Each participating agency forms an internal Task Force to work with the Aging Project’s director looking at three distinct areas:
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Institution/Organization:
Is inclusion part of your organization’s core values?
How inclusive are policies for employees and consumers?
How inclusive are your programs and services? -
Policy to Practice:
How do you convey your commitment to LGBT inclusion to your employees? Expansion of professional capacity to enhance skills/service delivery; dealing with backlash; sustainability of these efforts.
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Conveying Your Message:
Educating/notifying community partners, colleagues, about inclusion efforts; outreach to LGBT elders to build credibility and delivery of services based on Inclusion.
The Open Door Task Force is a fee for service project, with agency fees covering only a portion of the actual costs. Since 2007, the LGBT Aging Project has received a small amount of funding in the state budget for a modest expansion of the Task Force’s cultural competency training to additional organizations, including Aging Service Access Points, Councils on Aging, and long term care facilities.
Recent Open Door Task Force Participants Include:
Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly
Boston Senior Home Care
Bristol Elder Services
Caregiver Alliance of Suffolk County
Central Boston Elder Services
Coastline Elderly Services
Ethos
South Shore Elder Services
Elder Services of Worcester
Franklin County Home Care
Greater Lynn Senior Services
HESSCO
Somerville Cambridge Elder Services
Springwell
Worcester Council on Aging
Arlington Council on Aging
