SAGE Receives Major Grant from HHS for the First National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders

The Health and Human Services secretary and the Administration on Aging have awarded Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders (SAGE) a three-year, $900,000 grant to establish the nation’s first and only national resource center on LGBT aging. The National Technical Assistance Resource Center for LGBT Elders will provide assistance and training to communities, aging service providers and LGBT agencies nationwide in their efforts to serve and support older LGBT people. 

The leadership of both SAGE and AoA view the creation of the National Resource Center of LGBT Elders as a major achievement for the LGBT community. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, this provides an opportunity to make information, assistance and resources available to agencies that provide services to older individuals that may not be familiar with the needs of this underserved population. AoA has a record of funding national organizations that provide technical assistance and support services to underserved communities. HHS and AoA are now making it possible for LGBT older adults to have their unique needs addressed.

SAGE, the nation’s oldest and largest organization serving LGBT older adults, will  partner with the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity of Hunter College, New York, recognized nationally as a major center of excellence, and nine other organizations with expertise in a broad range of areas including mainstream aging, LGBT aging, culture change and competency and program evaluation.  These organizations include PHI (a national training expert), the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), the National Council on Aging’s National Institute of Senior Centers, the American Society on Aging, Centerlink (the national association of LGBT community centers), GRIOT Circle, FORGE Transgender Aging Network, Third Sector New England/The LGBT Aging Project, and openhouse.

Since its creation, SAGE has pioneered programs and services for older people in the LGBT community, provided technical assistance and training to expand opportunities for LGBT elders across the country, and provided a national voice on LGBT aging issues. In 2005 SAGE became the first official LGBT delegate at a White House Conference on Aging. The Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging & Longevity of Hunter College, founded in 1974, is one of the country's first multi-disciplinary academic gerontology centers. For over three decades, the Brookdale Center has taken the lead in identifying the needs of older adults, developing programs to make neighborhoods and communities better places to grow old, training professionals and paraprofessionals who serve the elderly, and championing both the elderly and policies to promote successful aging. The Brookdale Center now serves as a critical bridge between gerontological education, research, policy, practice and advocacy. SAGE and its partnering organizations in the National Resource Center will seek to work with mainstream aging providers, LGBT providers and LGBT older adults to ensure the delivery of necessary and culturally appropriate supports and services to LGBT elder for successful aging in place.