We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

Age brings a welcome perspective, says Washington University professor (and longtime Encore.org ally) Nancy Morrow-Howell,  reflecting on her four-decade career in gerontology.

The study of aging has changed dramatically since Morrow-Howell began her work: “We’ve always “medicalized” aging. We see aging almost as disease. In the beginning, we studied nearly everything negative about aging, from nursing homes to depression to incontinence. . . . But people finally began to realize that those issues don’t define the older population. And we began to study older adults in new ways. We look at how they are working longer and more involved in community engagement and volunteerism. The tenor has changed to focus on the whole picture of aging, not just the negative aspects of aging. It’s been quite transformative, even in my brief career.”

“As we are moving from a deficit perspective on aging to an asset- and strength-based perspective, one part of that has been the development of a national movement called Encore,” Morrow-Howell notes, adding that Washington University’s Encore Fellow Karen Sanders is working to promote the idea and practice of socially meaningful encore work in the second half of adulthood.  Read the full article here.

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