What is this work?

As we begin Older Americans Month, Sean Kelly, CEO of Front Porch, reflects on the work we do and how that Flips the Script on Aging, the theme for this year. Throughout this month, we will explore the many ways the people, communities and programs throughout Front Porch flip the script on aging.

A few weeks ago I was given the chance to say a few words at a regional symposium for the Vision Centre at our offices in Glendale. The Vision Centre exists for the expressed purposes of shining light on the professions within senior living, aging services and long-term care, and to instigate partnerships among provider organizations and colleges and universities that will support the ongoing development of these professionals. For a host of reasons, it’s important work, for the sector and for the world we live in.

In front of friends and colleagues from across the sector and several schools that are building or building on their programs, it occurred to me that the “work,” outside of that room is largely, exactly NOT what people generally expect it to be.

You see, in our world, we have these expectations for all of us that are getting older, that are wildly below the mark. We seem to expect so little of ourselves and certainly of the good people who are aging and are already “older.”  We seem to see barely a sliver of what life is, can be and may be, beyond a certain age. We often see only what is “less than” and certainly see less and less of a whole person. We fixate on what’s wrong, versus opening up to what might be. Consequently, we see the “work” as custodial, paternalistic, fatalistic and as an exercise of doing things “to and for” people.

The work is different as are the lives that it impacts. The “work” is a collaboration with a 102 year old named Glen writing his first book after his last parachute jump. The work is with Jean, who is making movies at 86 and Tom, preparing for a climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro at 85. The work is with David, who needs help eating on his own but is still dignified, respected and admired as a whole person. The work is with Paul who has lost the love of his life, and now is building a caring and grieving network for people in and outside of his community. The work is with Harry who has built a school to teach English as a second language in his community. The work is with Bill who shares his music and his thoughtful inspiration on a technology platform that reaches thousands each week. The work is with Gail, in search of just one moment of connection and a familiar touch among the chaos brought on by memory loss.

The work is rigorous and complex. It’s creative and forever innovating. It’s architecture and building and social work and listening. It’s banking and digital marketing. It is fitness and exercise as well as nursing and clinical care. The work is in the kitchen, in the art studio and in the wider world. The “work” invites people in who care deeply about having impact and at the same time demand a profession that is rewarding professionally. The work, is too often not only misunderstood, it’s too often unseen, particularly for what it is, and certainly, for the massive impact that it does and shall have on people, communities and society. 

I realized in this moment, standing before friends and colleagues, that our work must also be to shout from the rooftops about what we do, why we do it and the impact that we see and seek … together. Bravo to all of the great good people that appreciate what we have in this work, and also appreciate that there is an awful lot more that is possible in each of our lives than the world would have us believe.