On May 7, 2024, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) and Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) cohosted a funders-only meeting at the National Council on Aging’s Age + Action 2024 conference. The session, “Driving Change through Public-Private Collaboration,” focused on bridging connections between the public and private sectors to improve the health and well-being of older adults in the U.S.
Cara V. James, President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health, and Lindsay Goldman, CEO of Grantmakers In Aging, provided opening remarks and introduced colleagues from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Community Living (ACL). Kari Benson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging at ACL, and Kelly Cronin, Deputy Administrator, Innovation and Partnership at ACL outlined the agency’s current priorities and explored opportunities for collaboration with philanthropy.
Participants discussed a wide range of important issues affecting older adults based on community feedback, including affordable housing, the direct care workforce, social isolation, the need for a more coordinated strategy to address the social determinants of health, and creating a better infrastructure for older adults to access services. The importance of supporting age-friendly communities, health systems, and public health was heavily discussed as a solution to many of these challenges that both ACL and philanthropy need to continue supporting. Supporting community care hubs was another strategy that participants felt was an opportunity ripe for public-private partnership. If implemented strategically in key geographies, these hubs could effectively help connect older adults to needed resources, specialized health care, nutritious foods, and other social supports and care services.
The session concluded with a commitment to continuing the dialogue between ACL and philanthropy as well as similar dialogues at the state level.