September 18: Adam Berman

Join us as we hear from Adam Berman, President of Chelsea Jewish Living, about the Leonard Florence Center for Living in Chelsea, MA. This nursing home, part of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare, is the first urban Green House skilled nursing facility. Adam will teach us more about the Green House model and enlighten us about the innovative ways the Leonard Florence Center for Living enables residents to live as independently as possible.

October 16: Dementia Friends Training

Join our very own Amy Walsh for a Dementia Friends Training. During this community awareness training program, we will learn what it’s like to live with dementia and how we can use our understanding to help those in our community living with dementia.

November 20: Roberta Robertson, PACE

Join us to hear from our very own Roberta Robertson as she teaches us about PACE programs. Roberta has over two decades of experience in elder services and is currently Director of Geriatric Outreach at The Elder Service Plan, the PACE program of Cambridge Health Alliance.

PACE, The Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, offers coordinated, interdisciplinary care for people 55+ who have medical needs but want to continue to live in the community for as long as possible.

December 18: Boston Bridge Conversations

Join us at our December meeting for a thought-provoking discussion with City Life/Vida Urbana Executive Director Lisa Owens. Lisa is a local educator, community builder and social justice advocate and will lead us in a discussion about social justice and the importance of taking time to reflect on important topics.

January 15: End of life planning innovations

Join us as Ariel Sherry and Ailene Gerhardt tell us about innovations changing the way we talk about and plan for end-of-life, including Cake and Hello. We’ll get to try both and learn how these platforms are making a difference.

February 19: Cal Halvorsen

Cal Halvorsen, PhD, MSW is an assistant professor at the Boston College School of Social Work and Public Voices Fellow with Encore.org. His research interests include late-life self-employment and entrepreneurship, encore careers, and older adults as social innovators.  Join us as Cal discusses his current research, including the antecedents, experiences, and outcomes of longer working lives.

March 18: Mentor Madness

Due to concerns about COVID-19, our upcoming meeting will be held by video conference. As planned, we will begin the evening with an overview of Boston Bridge’s great mentoring opportunities, and then hear from some of our wonderful mentors.

April 15: Survey Results & COVID-19

Due to COVID-19, we’ve had to shift around our speaker and topic. This month our board member Taylor Patskanick from the MIT AgeLab, will take us on a deep dive into the results from our recent organizational survey, “Checking in with Boston Bridge.” We will discuss key findings and its implications for Boston Bridge participants and members.

In the spirit of “checking in” we will use the second half of our meeting to discuss how we have been professionally impacted by COVID-19, with a particular focus on how the pandemic is impacting aging network services, our clients, and how our roles as professionals have changed. Time will also be provided for the

May 20: Lou Woolf

Join our zoom discussion on May 20th with Lou Woolf who is the president and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, a top provider of senior care in the Boston area and a national leader in redefining the experience of aging. In light of our ever changing world Lou will be discussing his organization’s philosophy and approach as a front line service provider during to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how that fit (or didn’t) with their organizational culture.

June 17: Boston Bridge June Conversation – Systemic Racism in Aging

Today, more than ever, we need to talk about social justice and advocacy. We are taking the opportunity for our June meeting to discuss issues of white privilege in our work with older adults, systemic racism more broadly, Black Lives Matter, and intersectionality. We hope you join us for this pertinent discussion as we look for ways to elevate these discussions in our aging field. 

In preparation for this meeting, we suggest watching this video with an overview of Systemic Racism in the video “Systemic Racism Explained”.