All of us can play a role in promoting elder justice. Information & Referral/Assistance professionals are uniquely situated to respond to individuals experiencing life circumstances that may contribute to the risk of maltreatment or self-neglect. This session will share resources that can support specialists and their agencies in this vital work.

Communities' diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts often focus on how employees and volunteers are treated within those agencies, how funding decisions are made, and efforts in speaking to consumers. These efforts should also focus on the resource databases and the language contained within them. As one of the most important features of a resource database, resource database curators should carefully select language that reflects the diversity of those who view the database online and the specialists using it to retrieve assistance for individuals in need.

As one of the oldest isms, ageism is the only prejudice that shows hate towards our future selves. Ageism is a systemic barrier to service provision that affects everyone -stroll down any greeting card aisle and be bombarded by negative tropes. The numbers don’t lie- trillions of dollars a year are acquired by perpetuating the belief that “staying young” is ideal and “getting old” is a shameful disease to be avoided. However, getting older is one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of our time, and celebrating birthdays can give you more birthdays to celebrate (7.5 to be precise)! Join us, educate yourself, embrace aging, and fight for a better future where growing old is seen as an opportunity rather than a liability.

The AIRS Conference is the Premier Event for providers of community navigation services from multiple sectors. If your organization helps connect people to community services, then this is the place for you to be. This package contains pre-recorded sessions from this event.

This package is designed to help anyone preparing to take the CRS Certification test by reviewing portions the of the training manual and standards that the certification test is based on. Completion of this package does not guarantee a passing score on the test nor does it qualify as a replacement to taking the test and grant the user certification. This package is for study purposes only.

This presentation will cover our specialized directories, and the collaborative process 211/LIFE LINE and the Latino Health Coalition had to arrive at the fields we collect. Additionally, this will cover the importance of implementing these simple changes to a 211’s validation process and how it positively impacts specialized directories. We will also discuss how this work has grown to include other communities through partnerships with healthcare organizations.

This webinar is for those who are wondering how to use their I&R programs to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work within their organization or community. I&R data holds so much promise and can shape and contribute to DEI work in many ways. In this session will discuss the potential of the data being collected and present some techniques and tools to activate it.

Being “person-centered” and embedding “person-centered” practices is one of the latest initiatives in the No Wrong Door and Information and Referral System. What does this mean to you and the work that you do? This workshop will give an introduction and overview of person-centered thinking and provide some tips and tools that can be used in our everyday practices with the people we work with in our offices as well as in our communities.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate specific examples of situations where participants will integrate universal design concepts within all outreach and communication efforts. WHO: We’ll talk about content access needs along a spectrum of permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities. WHY: We’ll talk about the legal responsibilities of organizations identified by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 508, and the Accessible Canada Act. WHAT: We’ll talk about how organizations can make their content accessible in the development or adoption of Websites and Social Media, Documents and Referrals; Meetings and Presentations; Software. HOW: We’ll talk about resources and further trainings on addressing the accessibility needs of the previously identified content.

Everyone wears their rose-tinted glasses, viewing the world through their unique lens based on their knowledge and experiences - or Mental Maps. In this session, you will shatter those glasses and learn to challenge your assumptions and implicit bias to create a more accurate worldview.