 Thank you. Thank you very much, Rebecca. And I want to say thank you to Elizabeth for allowing us and how much we appreciate the opportunity to be here and celebrate our 40th anniversary. My job is the sweet job. I just get to welcome you. So welcome, welcome. I also get to thank all the people who helped put this together and And mainly what I would like to do is thank all of the New York Network board members So if you could just stand, Benny, Joan, Jack, thank you Thank you very much and I Have a special Thank you to Marsha Goffin and Roger Sanjeck who gave of their time and to Joan Davis Do you want to wave and Jack Kupferman? Because many of you are here because of those particular people. I Also want to tell you that there are great panther pieces of information in the back We I put out this is old But it's our last one the March April Our spring Network news and this gives you an idea of the kinds of things activities and programs that the great panther does And The pink flyers Like this that you were probably given that's a program of the day and on some of them there because we're very environmentally conscious Some of them have membership Pieces on the back of a membership forms and you are more than welcome to fill them out today and hand them in Again, as I said, my job is sweet and short. I thank you very very much for coming and Now I am going to continue on and I am going to introduce my good friend Florence Denmark She will serve as a moderator and then she will moderate the rest of the panel Florence is an internationally recognized scholar researcher and public policymaker She received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in social psychology and has six Let me repeat six honorary degrees She is the Robert Scott Pace distinguished research professor of psychology at Pace University in New York She is a past president of the American Psychological Association and the International Council of Psychologists She holds fellowship status in the APA and the Association for Psychological Science She is also a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social psychology and a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences She has received numerous national and international awards for her contributions to psychology Florence's most significant research and extensive publications have emphasized women's leadership and Leadership styles the interaction of status and gender Aging women in cross-culture perspectives and the history of women in psychology She is the main representative to the United Nations for the American Psychological Association and is currently With the International Council of Psychologists as their main representative She's a media past chair of the NGO Committee on Aging and serves on the executive committee of the NGO Committee on Mental Health and on the family Florence is 78 years old. I am 67 years old. Thank you Thank you very much Judy. I you forgot to mention that I'm a member of the Great Panthers also And I have I also have a very nice job today Which is to introduce our distinguished panel members and Then part of it isn't so nice because if they run overtime I'm going to be the nasty timekeeper, but each one has Roughly 10 minutes to speak and I don't think I'll be have to be too Nasty I'm cutting people off what I'm going to do is introduce each one and Then each as they speak not not all three at once And then we'll save any questions and comments until the end After all three have spoken. I do want to make mention that the idea for this program came from my husband Robert Westerner and Bob was on the board in the New York group of Great Panthers and and I didn't give him the idea I mean this came apparently from him He was a strong feminist as well as an activist and a great panther and So I'm filling in in that sense I guess for him as the moderator because he did die last April so and And one thing I will mention For anyone interested On October 21st, which is a Thursday at four o'clock In the church center of the United Nations on the 10th floor There will be a memorial for him. It won't be a religious memorial, but people will speak and Four to five in the 10th floor there and followed by refreshments So I hope as many of you as are able to will feel free to come to that All right now for the business of the day which is You know something which is as I said my honor to to introduce and I guess if going in order from the person next to me to my left will be Benny Price Less than half my age 35 and Benny is a self-described Jack of all trades administrator She comes to us with 10 years of social service experience Ranging from working in st. Barnabas nursing home to project and survey management Benny holds a BA in sociology from Fordham University and a master's of social work from Fordham's Graduate School of Social Services Currently Benny works at the Henry loose foundation Where she strives to use all of her skills to support the company's mission of responsible philanthropy? Currently as a board member of the Gray Panthers. She continues to advocate for the rights of seniors in New York City Your turn thank you I was asked to Discuss Why I joined the Gray Panthers My experience with the Gray Panthers began while I was attending graduate school I was in my second year field placement when Dr. Pat Brownell who some of you are familiar with Asked me to attend one of the meetings out of curiosity. I agreed to attend and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I First thought Gray Panthers. I'm thinking okay. This is another advocacy group What more could they possibly have to talk about what would set them apart from other advocacy groups throughout New York City? And I said, okay, I'll go and I'll find out. I discovered that the Gray Panthers are who they say they are They're an advocacy group who fights for the rights of seniors throughout New York City and Here we are at our 40th anniversary and we've tackled issues ranging from housing to Environmental to aging in place we've maintained our presence within the community Whether it's through tree planting in New York City through e-recycling or rallying against the closing of Peter Place in Manhattan We've also added our voices to rally against New York City budget cuts as well as the war in Iraq Wow, my speech is actually faster than I thought Going forward I would like for us to continue to be an active voice throughout New York City But we can't do that unless we get more younger members Recently we've lost a few key members to our organization who were able to add their experience and expertise to the Gray Panther mission and Now I believe my purpose is to stress to the younger members to join and to lend their voices To us as well, so thank you That was Well, it was short and but sweet and very important so I Certainly don't have to use a hook Let me also mention I see a few people standing there are some seats up here So please feel free to fill in Okay, well the next speaker is Maria Alvarez And her age is 46 Maria Alvarez is the deputy director of New York Statewide Senior Action Council a community-based membership organization made up of individual senior citizens and senior citizens Clubs from all parts of New York State Who advocate for their interests and needs? Regarding services programs and policies affecting older persons Maria has worked over 22 years with communities across New York State designing and implementing Educational social service and leadership programs for seniors and youths and Is committed to the advocacy and empowerment of these populations? During this time Maria has worked with senior citizens groups as an organizer advocate and director of housing and Caregivers programs throughout the metropolitan area of New York She holds a bachelor's degree from Marquette University and a master's degree in nonprofit Management from the new school for social research where she was a Sloan fellow Well, thank you very much. Thank you Judy for inviting me to speak here today This is a wonderful. Oh, yeah I This is a great a great. It's a great honor to be here among so many people and to So many, you know important people and and people who've actually made a difference in in those senior movement And not only the senior movement, but the whole social services movement You know, I read the Roger Sanjeck's book on on the development and the end on Maggie Kuhn and the founding of the great Panthers and it was interesting because It was first of all, it's a very well-written book and it documents Precisely how you know the minds the mindset frame of of the time and how it was It came about and all of the different strategies that they that they took to you know to to make change and What struck me was that the more I Read and I about, you know 30 40 years ago the things that were going on First of all, I remembered a lot of it because we were working all of us were working in this But also it's exactly what's happening today. It's a parallel. It's I mean we could just take the times Put the change the dates change some of the players and we would still have A lot of the same issues that we have today Which means that we have our work cut out for us, you know as Seniors and you know as you were saying Benny that we need the younger people as well First of all, I think it's really appropriate that today is the International Grandparents Day. So for all of you who are grandparents Congratulations and but it should also be a You know an opportunity to speak to your grandchildren about the importance of of the senior movement and What happened what's going to happen for them, you know so that they could start thinking about it I know people in my my age group even don't think about retirement and they should be at this point Or what they're going to be doing when they retire so and a lot of the policies that are going into effect today Don't really affect the seniors for today. I mean some of the immediate ones do but things like social security what they want to do with social security The older Americans act those are all policies that are going to affect the baby boomers and generations to come so You know, we're in a very challenging and interesting time right now for the senior movement because we have a crop of baby boomers that are coming That are aging in who seem to be Sort of oblivious to what it actually means when you need to get your part D You know when you need to collect your social security, they seem very entitled They think that things are going to happen just the same way their lives are not going to change It's just that they're what they may go into retirement if they feel like it or if Or they can also get a second job if they want to or and but now we see that a lot of people Need it and when they start signing up for all of these these You know for part D for example, and I know because I speak to a lot of them on the hotline that we run They don't understand. Why is it that they have a certain show? They have to make choices Between, you know, their plans and in New York State. We have 35 different plans that they have to Choose from and and can be confusing even for a professional I can't imagine what what it you know, somebody just walking into the system cold so you know and then Just so these are just things that we need to to let people know about because well They are they might be a little bit more vital right now. They have they might have certain means They might have certain sophistication that seniors when in Maggie Cune's time, you know, 40 years ago Where did not have They do not have the history. They do not have the activism The the activism bone in their body because they don't remember a lot of them just don't remember So I think it is up to us as seniors the whole senior network to go and educate and become peers with these Baby boomers and the younger generation so that this doesn't happen again and because it's just a shame to see all of the The the strides that we've made for the last 30 40 years Go backwards and we'll lose it if we don't do it And it also strikes me that that the great Panthers is was you know, it was 40 years 40 years old and it's a national organization and it's not just about senior services and senior policies I mean the the the the great Panthers is a wonderful organization because it Stands for senior citizens who do not see their age as limiting, you know Senior the the members of the great Panthers care about being green, you know I know that last year they the New York City chapter of the great Panthers had this whole Symposium lasted for I don't know how many like months three months And the thing is that a lot of the green pan the great Panthers members are members of statewide as well So I heard this all about the great Panthers and you know going green and finally I had to go and find out what it was because they Were talking about it so much and it's wonderful. They had experts from all over the world Coming and speaking on these important issues. They adopted policies They have policies on the on the different wars. They have the granny brigades They have you know, this is not an organization that is just saying okay. We're you know, first of all You know, they're definitely not laying down and dying here number one number number two Number two they consider they still consider themselves a vital part of society Which is important because we need people who have experience to be able and the history to be able to speak to People today. We can't let that history go, you know adulterated or lost We have to know what it is, you know with all of these things happening in the economic crisis I've had some very good in interesting conversations with people with seniors saying, you know, the recession is bad But I went through this when I was younger You know or my father or you know, so that kind of perspective you cannot buy I mean you need to have somebody who was able to steer us through that and it would be members of Of the great Panthers and of the other senior Organizations The other so they have a whole host the great the great Green Panthers you should change it to Green Panthers The great Panthers, you know, they care about a whole host of Issues from health to you know social justice economic justice and They're always a vital part of any type of campaign that we take on again Like I said in statewide and in Brooklyn wide, which I also I also direct We have We have a lot of campaigns that we're part of and the great Panthers are always front and center with whatever it is That we're going to do they contribute their manpower their their their creativity And They're great ideas so it's a wonderful organization and I would also venture to say that given I mean just looking at the the history, you know the The chronology if the great Panthers are 40 Statewide is 38 and Brooklyn wide is about 35 years old So this was all part of a movement, but you know and and what we see is that the great Panthers? Which is on a federal level, you know, it's it's a national level It's not just one organization that came out, you know from California and just stayed there This was an organization that grew and that people and it's very well recognized it's gotten to the point where people recognize it and And want to become members. It's something that you want to be a member of and it's it's something that People say oh, you know the great Panthers is something sort of like you The image that you get are these rabid seniors that are not gonna lie down and take it anymore, but The other thing I was going to say is that Because it's the or the organization's members Consider themselves still part of society. They also make these enormous contributions on you know in dictating what will happen in you know in society and First for the social services You know to come Right now the The United States is an aging Nation New York State especially is aging in by the year. I think it's 2020 New York City will have more seniors than children If you think about it seniors compose two-thirds of the electorate of New York State There is no reason for us to have Social security being cut or put into a trust fund. There is no reason to have HMOs and insurers making a great deal of amount of money off of the you know the wealth the wellness of seniors It's a it's a voice that should be heard loud and clear There should be no government that would even dare to touch a senior budget In fact, they should be enhancing it just because of the fact that we That we're a growing population And I know I probably have to close One more thing I just wanted to say at statewide we we became the the lead agency for the elder economic index in New York State and What we have found is what what we did was we took each county and We calculated the average amount of money that it would cost for a senior to retire in that county Obviously, it's not a perfect tool, but it's a very good tool to begin with and What we have found is that you know a lot of these programs and benefits get Get calculated, you know For for seniors to receive them According to the federal poverty level Well, the federal poverty level in New York's in in the United States last year this year is $10,800 Now here we are living in New York City, you know, where are you going to find anybody who could live on $10,800? So and what we have found that in in Brooklyn It costs about $26,000 to live on an average for a senior for a single rent, you know renter one bedroom And about 27 in New York City or 25, but it's in that ballpark So if we do not have a lot of the programs and subsidies that That we we have that are constantly being, you know, threatened I mean every time there's a there's a budget cut or a budget deficit reduction Program, who do they affect who gets affected the social services, you know Anyway, if we don't if we don't work to make sure that those things don't happen Seniors are not going to be able to live in their communities and It's it's a shame, you know It's a shame because the communities were built by the seniors, you know, this is if we're anywhere here It's because everybody here has worked hard enough to to to make sure that these these These benefits these programs these communities exist and The other thing is that Brooklyn wide actually held one of the only older Americans Reauthorization events in in New York You know why more organizations didn't take that on, you know, it's a mystery, but those those programs within the older Americans Act are First of all, there's things that Maggie Kuhn and the Great Panthers worked hard to get past When when this happened, that's number one number two Right now they those are all the community services the nutrition the senior centers and all of those things and transportation Those things are all being are all under attack These are the first things that should be enhanced for a better life for seniors and so I think that With with all of that said I mean I can go on forever, so I won't but I Wanted to invite everybody to come to the New York Statewide Senior Action Council meetings The next one is tomorrow if anybody is interested, just let me know and I'll tell you where it is and Brooklyn wide interagency Council on Aging meets at borough Hall the The third Wednesday of every month and anybody who wants information I could tell them afterwards But thank you so much for having me Before introducing our third speaker Let me mention that as you can see Although like the Great Panthers may do a lot of work for seniors as the title of this program Well, the program was deals with says women But I'm just getting at the part linking generations of women Perhaps we could have added women and men because women and men are welcome to be part of the Great Panthers movement to Attend these events and the ages Any age we may work for seniors, but we Remember linking generations means that younger people as well are not all are invited to be active because Everyone at some point will become a senior So you're only the younger people are working for your own future as well as As the current working for current seniors All right, let me now introduce What for me is like a pièce de résistance to introduce Lillian Sarno Who is a hundred and one something we can all aspire to? Lillian Sarno's expertise in pushing for women's rights extends over many decades rather than Follow the rules and limitations set for her because she was a woman she set new rules Mrs. Sarno graduated with a degree in law from New York University She worked as a lawyer for 10 years While rearing her family in New York her activities included raising funds for Hadassah's youth aliyah To relocate desperate children to Israel In the early 1960s she and her family moved to Long Beach The community was agitating for a mental health clinic Mrs. Sarno joined in their efforts to get legislation passed and then she helped raise the money So that the Long Beach Mental Health Association could open a clinic Not a stay-at-home mom. Mrs. Sarno began studying for a second career Following her graduation from a Delphi University with a master's in social work She worked for three years at Creedmore Hospital And then 13 years in its aftercare clinic where she became its administrator Mrs. Sarno is not a one-issue person Her leadership includes Gray Panther convener demonstrator Spokesperson and personal tutor to new members and is featured in Roger Sanjax 2009 book Gray Panthers Thank you. Now that you know all about me. I don't have to say anything But I do have a lot to say I was an Advocator from my early years 1916 I was giving speeches for the Liberty Bonds So you don't even remember you know about that and and that that was the beginning of my my my speaking career But it's getting to the great Panthers when I retired in 1966 I Decided that of the two things I was going to do in my retirement one thing was travel and the second thing was doing some organization which would Help other people so I never felt that I was alone in the universe I know there were always people who needed help and today they needed more than ever and we're finally Realizing that we're 50% people in poverty We've got to do something about that as we always said we had to do something about it And we do a little pieces here and there, but we don't really help and I hope now that would In this Very fractious Congress they'll get down to do something about it Because it isn't their fault that they poor It's our fault We just have so much riches in this country and that we don't share it It's very unfair and And I'm sure we don't When we read somebody who's poor or we learn about somebody who's poor we do try to help Individually, but that's not enough. We've got to do Something Together That will raise people from poverty 795 is not enough to live on Need more money than that The other thing is that when I joined the great Panthers the thing that they were working on was a single player Hello, we're still working on single player. I I think I think Obama It's a tragedy that he Introduces to health will and got it passed because it's going to be very difficult People gonna have to pay the subsidies people who can't afford the insurance and it really isn't suitable Single player is much better with then all these full stories about the Canadians who come through to United States to get health treatment are phony stories. Don't believe them Everyone's so awesome when he will come but most of Canadians are very happy with their system And what I was amazed to find out that friends of mine who had a child with measles Was surprised one Sunday when the doctor came to the house to see if the child was all right. I Don't talk that it's come to my house since I was five years old But when I think that what Franklin D. Roswell did Was wonderful and very grateful for social security I'm very grateful to stay in New York for the pension that they give me But neither to be enough to To support me So you All the people that lose their Money in them a 401ks Have my sympathy It was a good idea but didn't work out and that's what this health bill will be a good idea that won't work out As far as the great faces are concerned I Don't know how much is in the book because by the time He got finished writing the book. I couldn't read it anymore so I had to Be satisfied with the pictures in a minute and now I can't see them eat but I think that Maggie Kuhn had an The basis of an idea for an organization Which would be different from other organizations? She she worked for 20 years The Presbyterian Church as a social worker and she knew all about those kind of organizations and she didn't like them She tried to make a better organization and we're still trying to make it a better organization We we work with all kinds of organizations the housing organizations those who work organizations and any any organization ready to help People and work with people gets a sympathy and the and the assistance of the great panthers the committee on aging the United Nations which Is it part of this meeting was founded by Maggie Kuhn when she was part of it our Repetitive to the United Nations So we've had a good issue far and wide and we will continue working on the same level and And we hope to have similar success This is story about Maggie Kuhn that when they Told her that she had to retire from the Presbyterian Church because she was 65 She got very annoyed and Refused especially refused to retire But they had her you know on the rules so she had to retire when she retired There were about four or five other women who had retired had to retire at the same time and That at that time they were working in Philadelphia. So they got these women got together and they went to Congress every once a week from Philadelphia to speak to congressman about mandatory resignment and the congressman Willings listen and eventually they passed a bill against mandatory resignment So there is no such thing any more in mandatory resignment. They can't say 65 in your app Some of us can last longer than 65 So she that there was a when when they got the bill passed there was Succession that they should drop everything and she said no there were other problems that They had social workers knew about they should get together and work on them. So they did But they didn't have it didn't have a title and they they call themselves old and young the social justice but one day Maggie was talking under the Television she's being interviewed and she was telling the Interview me interviewer Have she Organization was working on this thing that mean the other thing with other organizations were also working on They were working together and He said you sound to me like Black Panthers Well, they weren't black. It couldn't be Black Panthers She liked that name and she liked there was a great what the Black Panthers were doing and so they got military So she said they they called themselves the Grey Panthers but The symbol gray made lots of people say oh, I can't join them too young Nobody's too young Nobody Anybody can help other people and everybody should do it No matter how little you can do no matter how much you can do every little bit helps There's nothing ever said that was true and then that Important and I I worked with the Grey Panthers for 30 years. Who was worth of aggregations and The different ways that we had of new rings make sure that we could be able to do what we wanted to do we had a member of Congress who every year put in a single-payer bill and When he retired he had a hundred sponsors, which is quite a bit And I don't know what happened to that. I don't know why that was ignored when Obama put when Obama put in his bill I'm glad he's there. I think he's gonna be progressive and we need progression because the world is in a desperate desperate straight Very very dangerous world and scary But we have to do the best we can to see that we we keep our eye on the ball And don't let these little strange people Want to bury in Bibles and things like that burn books don't them make Just this that's why I I'm in favor of Letting that Amen, is that what they call them? Amen to have this is his is his why and at them Ground zero Ground zero is going to be a tourist strap and as long as that's what's going to Mean they're not keeping that out So as long as they don't keep that out, I I don't think they have a right to keep anything out. Thank you Thank you very much. You're an inspiration to all of us We have a lot of time left and there may be people out there who have comments questions I would also like to at some point ask Judy Lear and others in New York area to tell about activities that are going to be ongoing But there may be somebody who has a question to anyone on the panel Jack What are good ways to involve younger people? Into the issues That will be confronting them as they grow older because there's so little Younger people are not that interested How do we make them interested because this is going to be their life? They're going to be living to No, they're not There's a lot of discussion about the fact that this is a unique thing And it won't last But even if they do it, they do it all lives. There are many ways to live life and Everybody fix their own if we continue having everybody taking drugs or Everybody smoking We're not going to and or everybody obese We're gonna have problems anyway the young people would have problems Anyway, they're going to have to get together to figure out how to help themselves Every every every generation Does it in their own way? the way of my generation was Millicent the 60s was a very wild age and The introduction of drugs causes to be more difficult I think I think that's kind of waning now. I hope so and And people would young people will pick up and find their own way nobody can tell them how to do it I found that out Can't tell a young person how to do it you have to let them do it their own way Give them assistance one When they will take it But they do it their own way we did it our own way the other with their own way You can't make them do it your way You want to answer that? Okay Well, I think that's very wise what you just said. It's true I Think that a lot of it has to be do with education educating the public. I see a lot of these campaigns You know and TV that talk about drugs and all that so you're right, you know a lot of the I Mean that's the way people interact but You know it's interesting I was I was look I was saw an ad yesterday About the flu and they were targeting targeting it to young people who are not as Prone to get you know the flu and they're saying oh, you know you should get vaccinated and all that I was thinking Why are they not targeting this to to seniors? So I think better education programs And I think speaking from a programmatic perspective intergenerational programs right now for example There are some statistics that came out on health Chronic, you know health issues and Brooklyn and especially in bedstie they have the worst numbers and sometimes in a nation sometimes all in all of New York State in terms of Diabetes obesity, you know asthma things like that But then when we look at that, okay, and we see there was also an article about the The how in Bedford Stuyvesant in East New York, they had the worst numbers for Prenatal deaths the mother would die, you know the mother to be would die and a lot of it had to do with their nutrition with lack of insurance and Just a lot and also they had something where they even died because they were killed because of family stress I guess and they were killed but Then you start thinking if this is how the children are Being raised, you know with such horrible, you know Illness, you know in conditions no wonder why in their older age, you know as seniors They will have bad numbers as well. So if it's something that we improve From the beginning and we just bring it up, you know from the from the children's stages all the way up Maybe by the time that they become seniors and or younger adults They'll be able to have a better situation So I'm thinking that that's probably the best way to do it also for these kinds of issues You know if we could have some type of educational intergenerational program where the seniors that are living things now could communicate You know what's going on and how to improve what has happened and where things can go and how to improve it It would probably make at least create more sensitivity for younger generations So that when they become of Retirement age things won't look like this because they'll they'll be able to take it into their own Work professionally, you know, they'll be able to work if they work in government. They'll they'll they'll remember this and So yeah, so I just think that that that would probably be an intergenerational approach would be necessary Thank you, Benny. Do you want to add anything? Yes, I think the best way you can get a younger person involved would be Pretty much on the same track how I became a great panther you have a lot of social work You know programs out there universities and programs where they have younger people working there But maybe there's not the encouragement that you should You know join a program just like you know the great panthers or be interested in Activities outside of what they do on a day-to-day basis, you know, you you may be a case, you know a case worker in say a social a Nursing home But then you limit it to that once you leave that you decide, okay, I'm going to go out and do whatever You know I have with my regular life, but I think once you Once you say to them, okay Once you actually get them out there to see that it don't just it doesn't just affect what happens within their circle But also in a broad sense then maybe you know, they'll become more active within the senior community also We're thinking more on the lines of of What we've talked about previously in other meetings were where as Most younger people don't get involved unless something immediate happens to them and their family So whenever you have say your grandparent who's going through some kind of health health issue Whether it's you know, heart ill heart failure heart illness then Once they see what happens within certain areas then they can say, okay, we need to advocate and then they get the more what is the word I'm looking for The You know to go out there and say, okay, you had a motivation Thank you to go out and say, okay, you know what we need to be more active We need that so basically what I think is just to get To light the fire under the younger generation the younger people and say, okay, look, this is what's happening now You will experience this whether you think you may or not, you know, this is it This is what you have to focus on Can I just add something to it? Another thing is that when we look at the schools For example, medical schools, then nobody is encouraged to go into gerontology You know, even though it's going to be the largest population No one is saying, you know because it doesn't pay so people are more attracted to going into other specialties But there has to be something that an incentive for people to want to other than you know The human part that you were talking about for people to to become doctors specializing in gerontology social workers that are studying social work They they don't they don't like to to come, you know, they think it's better to go deal with seniors I mean with children with education or they're going to go into private practice but you don't see a lot of people that are going to specialize in in gerontology and social work for for seniors and I think that's a big mistake because you know, and then I mean if you look at it from a social perspective It's you know, we see the media everything goes toward young youth and you know, the baby boomers They want they they don't want to become old. They want to become young You know all that think all of that that whole mind's mind frame and that mindset that we have in this country Does you know negates anything having to do with a senior and that's something that we should have to change Well one thing that I don't know how much insight I know I've just personally I've always been an activist and I Fight for all kinds of people whatever regardless of age or anything But one thing I did find I I co-teach a class that's called multicultural and gender issues and My colleague and I really teach it as a course in diversity Now I paste that that the doctoral program is School Clinical child so these are people who start out interested in children But I bring in a speaker who's a colleague who is a gyro psychologist she works in a nursing homes and and and I'm telling you having her that this it opened my eyes because I thought I wonder how the Class will respond to her and she talked to them If you had you know, it was a really a very nice answer to your questions And at the end I had students who say we want to work with this population Can we write our term paper on this and can we get involved? So I think my point here is that just I'm telling younger people about a different age group than they think they're interested in Gets them interested and they and they really did become involved and eager to go out and visit her and their nursing home and And continue their interest there so that I was really happy with that and I think that is one way is To you know, let people know what's going on with older people and that is it's Exciting and interesting to work with them. Yes I Turn it over to the anyone on the panel who wants to answer that Yeah, the question is how do you get people who are not in College are never going to go to college younger people and Including rednecks to get involved. How do you how do you can we do something with that group? It's not easy Stay because you have to you have to move into their circles You can't expect them to come to you You have to be with them where they are and where they are is usually not very pleasant So people it's hard to get people to go there But I know we tried several times who in the great places we tried several times to move into the projects And it was very difficult I Went many times to different projects that speaks to them About joining the great panthers and you know moving out into circles where you could help other people And they all feel they need the help They don't they don't want to help other people They think they feel they need the help more than anybody and they don't get it It was very difficult thing to do Yes, I have I've worked With programs, you know throughout my career and a lot of it has been with with Multicultural projects and underserved populations and especially populations that have been marginated and what we found is You know usually if you have people that are Representative of that community that can come and speak to them about what thing what is going on They assimilate better and then and that's just the initial thing because then once you start, you know a process of Getting people, you know more involved in the in the the movement that's going on then all of those other barriers start going down You know But I feel that it's it's very important to begin to you know to begin with people who are Representative of that community who can better communicate with them You know until then a process of acculturation occurs. I think that was part of the success of acorn in the beginning That's what acorn did Okay Yeah, I'm just the panel. Did you want to comment on that? No, okay Clarence and then gentlemen Good good point. Yes. Did you want to I've been making an effort to demonstrate with serve providers and senior centers and churches that we need to reach families through an intergenerational And I've been doing that now several years specifically around HIV AIDS and a number of health issues that impacts the aging process And you talked about the Gerontologists Just last month presented at Mount Sinai Hospital to a group of Gerontologists and as a member of the Health and Hospitals Corporations advisory board I have also As recommended that they institute Gerontology programs throughout the HHC facilities and that they have done so it's a good thing One other thing I wanted to bring to mind when having a meeting on this Tuesday and We're highlighting the International or the national rather excuse me the national day of aging which is on September 18 But my meeting is on Tuesday and we're celebrating that with a host of service representatives and myself And we'll be talking to the talk to the issue of aging updates So certainly feel free to enjoy that activity inside the HHC I have flyers if you can't go please encourage me to make this your friends your cousins It's really important that we all get involved in this process. And Jerry Invited you from a member. I took on the task Do it because I wanted to get involved more with social social justice and education and health care issues And we need to do it all as a family not divisively but collectively. Thank you. Very good. Thank you Yes I Yes Intergenerational programs Were severely splashed Recently City Department for the aging and the exam of those programs, which were piloted or initiated there You find many of them commendable. I think that's regrettable We concentrated on the center issue, you know, and we ignored There are other elements of that social Just this morning, I thought of the game There were several programs on I saw on TV this morning in which who were gross inaccuracy given concerning the social issues facing this country and both of these programs amount to elected officials who are Mouthing information, which is totally false I know it's close because I happen to be in a position to be more informed But we we need to have a cadre of people, you know to tell the truth First of all what the social issues are they're needed in this community and also when it comes to intergenerational Issue as was just mentioned earlier. There are multiple activities going on in this community Which are our expensive in terms of human investment in them Which have turned around the attitude of the behavior of Neighborhoods and numbers so that they realize that we have a responsibility to each other And that should be nurtured and it should be funded, you know And I think that if the active and break down the board to do anything that would be meaningful would be to come up With a new kind of advocacy that tells the truth about viability and the need of things like social security and the Medicare and Other programs which were initiated for very good reasons and need to be nurtured and Continued and not beaten to death and they are broke Thank you Money always is a problem, but I think the But to be an advocate You don't need the money to advocate and get to put to go out there and on the front lines and fight for things that We all would believe in but it's hard work. Oh, yeah No, I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just that is work, but Are there any other? Okay, didn't see Language in that was based upon the Civil Rights Act for African-Americans of 1964 and using those two laws In the model of African-Americans the women's movement the gay and lesbian movement and suddenly we were the disability civil rights movement In night I was 30 years I was when there was a horrible Hotel fire in Westchester, I think in the late 70s, maybe early 80s I was a long-colored people appointed to an advisory committee to the State Division of Housing and community renewal and they were dealing with the issue of how to get disabled and elderly people out of a building in a fire and at the time My disabled colleagues and I raise our problem is not getting out of buildings But getting into buildings and that changed the whole Thought process on how to deal with our state-building It was a struggle and nobody wanted to be convinced that They might develop a disability and we want to have this accommodation But everybody sitting around that room The architects of the engineers who resented are telling them how to creatively build their buildings of Eventually came around and the thought was ageing And it was Roger who put together the statistics and even testified to those committees that were making the decisions That of a certain age to a new so many percentage 65 to 75 75 to 85 and so on a large number of Older people in our society So as a result of that we got buildings newly constructed Significantly renovated with entrances with those steps wider doorways throughout Larger bathrooms that would accommodate a wheelchair and a Walker and many other innovations in our building environment So that is how I got involved I still don't know but my question is how in In times of blending not so far in the past Where governments were awash and money? And we never did realize The peace Dividend But how in times Economics Do we work together in? Coalition and an age group and they're leaving and all of this When most of the children in our country or many children are in poverty and at the other end of the spectrum Many ageing And in between you have working families struggling to maintain Shelter and food and education How do we work together to prevent the powers that be the decision maker? from picking one group against another welfare mothers versus the ages Etc. Etc. That's where we have Especially That's a very good question before I turn to the panel who may want to respond Let me thank you and Roger for what you did for the disabled anyone and anybody here want to Take a chance. Oh, do you want to respond? Well, the question is how can we basically with so many people in need were from young children to The age it and anybody in between. How do we keep groups from? Had not the groups themselves, but how do we keep government or things from pitting one group against another? Yes, the elected officials thing that You one thing you said that was very true Is that when times were good about 10 years ago? We had a surplus in New York State. We had a surplus in the nation They were still cutting us, you know, I could show you that, you know, we were still, you know Cutting Medicaid social security. We were still fighting all of those things So now when things are seemingly bad, they you know, then they say well, it's the economy One of the things that First of all, you know, one of the things when we when we're confronted with that and we do Advocate, you know with our elected officials and throughout campaigns You know, it just doesn't make sense because when times were good, they were still cutting us when times are bad They're not they're cutting us I think the priorities that these elected officials have are misplaced When the first thing that they want to cut is nutrition programs Transportation and senior services and for children and all that You know, what does that say of the values that they have and That's what our membership Reminds them of which is why I was saying earlier that there should be because seniors vote in such great numbers They have to be out of their minds to try to cut senior services and programs and benefits With the with the issue of pitting one against the other one one thing that we do in both of you know, in statewide and Brooklyn white and the great Panthers does it also We never say it's just for the seniors. It's seniors and families Because you know, you can't put something, you know, it would be bad to have to put a senior in Against a child children don't vote So technically they don't have a way to defend themselves but on the other toe by the other token on Seniors grandparents now take care of their grandchildren and More now a lot of the children not even grandchildren are moving back in with their parents which happened to be senior citizens so if the senior is not doing well the rest of the the family and Extension the rest of the community is not doing well and vice versa. So we all have to be together on this The other thing we do is we work with a lot of coalitions that are comprised of the disabled of the seniors and families and children's You know organizations and we always try to have that united front The battle really isn't an older person against a younger person You know, they were able to find monies to bail out banks. They were they're able, you know, Wall Street is coming back The problem is these bonuses these the the These people are getting these leaders are getting bonuses and getting more money than before but guess what they are being They're being rewarded for cutting jobs For being, you know for doing things that are not Necessarily ethical in our sense maybe in their in their, you know Friend, you know their realm of work it is but it's unethical from a human standpoint And I think we need to remind elected officials of the values of society and of the people who vote for them I Think we have one challenge if I could just add on to this is that these new campaign Finance laws are really going to affect the people that are You know are going to affect us because now these these Corporations are allowed to donate to an elected officials campaign as if they were a person Which means that they could give as much money as they want When we're talking about oil companies when we're talking about pharmaceuticals or Or HMOs or large organizations like that we cannot compete, you know in terms of financing and Unfortunately, they do they those policies really do affect, you know and sway sway what type of influence there is in Congress and in in in the different Yes Yes, Lillian the whole basis of Our democracy is the votes That's that's And that the founding fathers saw that and tried to protect it And they it lasted quite a while But when the new Corporations started in their wings And they wanted to get into the act Because they saw they saw That the boat was the answer To do get them to get what they want to get what they do Society to be one wishes for their benefit and they worked on that and we weren't Fests enough to see what they were doing And now they got all the way to the supreme court when they got this new ridiculous decision that corporations are people They'll never get rid of What's happened now It's not, you know, roll over. No, it's too big now. It's very big and They try with little pieces to get Some help but the only way it's going to be done is if all the people Do not vote for anybody who gets money from big corporations or You'll be surprised it will show up You'll be surprised who show up there was there and there was People here near that say this people in politics that say this and And they that's what they're going to have to do And all these little things that they try to do will not help did not help I Don't know. I don't know how they're ever going to settle it But they have set the hapsis that way that know that they can accept big donations Nothing above 250 dollar They'll Work it down gradually This now they're working They're not working for us They're working for the people who pay them And it's very obvious and they don't care we know They tried to keep it a secret didn't work but then and now they don't care Like they got everybody in so yes, there's a few other yes No, it's a good question anyone the the caregivers program The caregivers program I know under the the the older Americans act in the last Since the last 12 years They have done very little to enhance the money that has been given given and they have But they have made a special concession to two things one is they they included the title 3ce which is the caregivers But then and also for they've they've they've raised the amount of money for the For the for senior workers and that those are the only two things that have been enhanced in the older Americans act the last 12 years the one thing that that I know in New York State what they're trying to do is Have this consumer directed law Which would help People who are caregivers to actually get paid to To care for the person if you know if that's what the family decides because a lot of times I mean as we know a Person the best the best care you're going to receive is at home and from your loved ones And I don't have to tell you that because I know you know but So now there there's this push for the consumer directed law because what's happened is a lot of the women Especially women, but anybody who who is a caregiver? ends up sacrificing their productive years where then At the time when they're retiring they are probably worse off Economically then the person they were caring for even because they lose a lot of a lot of income in those productive years so This consumer directed law what it does is it at least pays a little bit for that person's efforts in taking care of the relative The but we also have this other Proposal for you know that we're at I know that in statewide we're trying to pat to to get a sponsor for it as well where We're trying to get I know a lot of the organizations are into it also where we're trying to get People especially women who stay home To get some type of credit Tax credit for their social security and you know for in their retirement So that they get credit for having stayed home those years taking care of you know their loved ones So those are two two bills that would be Yeah This is certainly a very important current issue this was a big at the American psychological Association meeting there was a whole series of programs on caregiving so hopefully not just that but I mean I think it's reaching all over I mean and Hopefully something will be done about it because it seems to be important and oh in many different venues Did you want to have a did you have a question or comment? Judy what I What can we do because that's a great panthers is it's an action-oriented Organization we write letters we We March we demonstrate sometimes we even get a resident Okay So the first thing that you can do vote Vote on Tuesday Tuesday is the primary vote for I don't care what candidate great Panthers is not Part of them, but vote in some way for people who believe in the things that you believe in and who will carry out Tuesday this vote is like the most important vote It's your heaviest vote that you can ever have Because unfortunately not very many people go to vote in the primary So your vote will count Ten times more than it would in any other kind of an election. So vote Please I'm sure you do Marie. I'm sure you and bring your husband courage your friends to vote to write and neighbors The second thing as far as the corporations who can now give as much money as they want I think that they should be taxed The way an individual is taxed and even if they are ten percent of their gross Income right then that will be fine And that will pay for the lot of the social services that we are seeing reduced Because of the kind of people that they are left. So that is an idea just an idea The other thing that I do want to say is Great Panthers has three main priorities. Our first is peace Worldwide basis and for those of you who are really strong on peace Please by all means right advocate the president and our senators to Not only take the 90,000 troops out of Iraq, but the remaining 15,000 and out of Afghanistan And if you want to do something Wednesdays from 430 to 530 the grandmother's against the war March and stand in front of across the street from Saxon Avenue in front of What is it Rockfeller Center and they vigil for one whole hour there So that's something you can do hold a sign and say you are against the war hand out a leaflet Okay with the second thing that we work on is the environment and We are really concerned about the environment and in the back are all these little postcards Take a bunch of them hand them out to your friends Right now here in New York. We are fighting against hyper-fracking for gas right and that is An upstate New York and we do not want that to happen So take a few of these and right to the speaker of the assembly to your Senators most of our senators here in New York and Brooklyn are very Positive towards this because what could possibly happen is that? our Drinking water will become poisoned because of the fracking that will be done So that is one thing that isn't that you can do the third issue that we are Very involved with is health care health care for everyone single-payer meant that we wanted Us to be able to be taxed and government to pay It's basically Medicare for all and that's the kind of the thing that we are still going to be fighting for Great Panthers as as you very kindly said have been working in coalition With I'm looking around the room, and I've seen people from other organizations that we work in coalition with So we miss Jason. Would you just make one comment about Presbyterian senior services and your wonderful Grandparent program and you've got a program that's coming up at Florida So yes One reason is Jason the executive director of Presbyterian senior services, and we've had a long relationship with great Panthers Maggie Coon was involved with our organization from way back when and in actual in actuality we started a Maggie Coon Award that we've been given out for the last 15 years in her honor given to people who advocate not only on behalf of the elderly but for a wide variety of causes people really work and strive to improve their community, so We have great partnership with Great Panthers and Judy must be on a recruitment drive. Maybe she's meeting her quote I don't know if she's recruiting everybody here She's recruited me as well to join the great Panthers and we enjoy working with her You mentioned the in-generational aspect of what we do Presbyterian senior services offers a wide variety of services We run senior centers. We have senior apartments. We have also have the first Apartment built specifically for grandparents raising grand children built in five years ago This is our fifth anniversary It's in southern Bronx in a neighborhood in a community that desperately needs Residents like that and where we make it successful is because we support the family We support not only the grandparents because when people come to the building they're always asking about those programs And that's very important and it's next to one of our senior centers So we're able to support the grandparents but equally important as you all know you were talking about a new generation of programs Supporting the children kids do well The family does well the families do well So we support the kids with our school programs Really making that connection for them in terms of success in school would mean success on the job success in life So we have the after-school programs. We have summer camp programs. We have vocational programs, etc and our apartment is Widely recognized and was actually a subject of a documentary called brand mother grandmother Features our grandparents as well as their counterparts in Tanzania And shows how much they have in common and follows both those stories And that's going to be a subject of a presentation at Fordon University We need the manhandling campus on Tuesday October 5th, and if you want more information, you can see me at the end Okay, and then we talked already and you really don't mind I'm not going to call you up with New York Statewide and that Maria is also involved with and on This Monday tomorrow at one o'clock Please see her for directions as to where to go because anybody is welcome to those things Okay, Roger. You weren't here before when I introduced special people. I wanted to say thank you So could you stand right now? Did you bring the books? No, okay Well, you can go on Amazon because I just checked and you can buy one of Roger's books It's called Great Panthers and Really an excellent Okay, I think that I have done everything what I want to say We will have on our website, which is WWW Great Panthers NYC dot-cord all of the Calendary type of things that we are doing because as I said we work in coalition with so many other groups We will be October 7th at the United Nations for For the International Day of Older Persons plus at the health fair and as is prugerts senior resources and Temple When is that So there are a myriad of activities that are going to be done and we are going to do a bit more on The environment and we're going to reconnect with our Grand Green Coalition, which was 18 different Organizations, and I'm so glad that it is here and talked about HIV AIDS and those are the kinds of things that we work on Lillian, I appreciate the fact that you talked about the Islamic Community Center Great Panthers is very much for that Very positive toward that because this is our American value We are based on freedom and freedom of religion is certainly one of the freedoms I'm going to just close with and I apologize and thank you Maria I'm thinking you wonderfully Thank you very much for being on our panel, but I'm going to close with what can we do? Times are changing and I'm not going to make any excuses for that What we can do is what you can do individually I wear that Little necklace be the change you wish to see in the world I don't care what you do. Just do it Right, that's a great note on which to close but I want to also thank the panel who made my job easy