A Successor Model for Community Support of Low-Income Minority Group Aged

Abstract

Experience in research and community outreach work with low-income urban aged led to the development of a multifocal program approach. The program approach includes case referral and advocacy work with the target population as well as the organization of neighborhood-based groups of elderly residents. The two approaches are intended to achieve both treatment of extant social symptoms of age discrimination and social and political power by the aged to eliminate discrimination on the basis of age. The two approaches provide mutual reinforcement for the success of each, and are based on tenets of social interaction theory as well as an analysis of the social and political powerlessness of the aged in the Model Cities Neighborhood of Philadelphia. Experience in the Model Cities Senior Wheels East has led to considerations involving cross-generational ties between worker and client to achieve senior power, the role of indigenous community workers in social welfare agencies working with the aged as well as the successful application of the approach to the black, Puerto Rican, and foreign-born white aged residing in the area. Although perfection in program operation is not claimed, the validity and appropriateness of the approach is raised for consideration following the National Conference of the National Caucus on Black Aged and the White House Conference on Aging.