Thank you to City Life/Vida Urbana Executive Director Lisa Owens for leading our annual Boston Bridge Conversations. Lisa facilitated a thought-provoking and interactive discussion on approaching social justice issues from a place of strength, learning, and action. 

Announcements:

• Job Board:
  • Our job board is a great resource for those seeking employment and those posting opportunities. Please feel free to submit openings through the job submission form on the Boston Bridge website. 
• Membership Dues: 
  • New members are encouraged to join Boston Bridge! Our membership dues cycle is from September 2019 through June 2020. Dues are $30 for professionals and $20 for students. To join or to renew your membership, please click here. 

For Our January Meeting:Join us at our January meeting as Boston Bridge Vice President Ariel Sherry and member 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. We look forward to seeing you there!

Articles

• Thoughtful and lovely poetry can be shared by people experiencing dementia. Read this article about the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project.
• A new study in Neurology “finds a correlation between an unstable income in your 20s and 30s and brain integrity in midlife.” The association with cognitive decline later in life is discussed here.
• Another study in the journal Nature Medicine discusses a woman whose genetic make-up indicated she should have developed early onset Alzheimer’s disease, but a mutation seems to have stopped that development. This could be important for changing the scientific understanding of Alzheimer’s researchers who have been craving a lead for a while now. Read the article to find out more.
• Mayor Walsh recently announced an LGBTQ-Supported Senior Housing Site in Hyde Park. This housing project is part of an initiative aiming to create 2,000 new units for low-income seniors by 2030. Read about this new supportive housing.
• There are many examples of intergenerational programs that have been win-win situations. Now, Chicago has come up with a new one that is called intergenerational co-mentoring. 
• Concerning co-mentoring: Is it possible that co-mentoring can reduce ageist thinking? And is Boston Bridge itself a co-mentoring program? See how co-mentoring has succeeded in the world of start-up companies.
• The Milken Institute studies the massive demographic shift that we are experiencing today. While Boston, and all of Massachusetts, has been expending exemplary efforts to be Age-Friendly, the Miliken studies detail more to be done. Check out the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging for further information.  
• The Milken Institute also outlines challenges to Age-Friendly efforts. One is the challenge for big cities.
• Post-graduate certification programs for community health workers (CHW) are burgeoning. They are becoming important to hospitals and physician’s offices as a way to bridge the gap between communities and health care systems. See how they work and how effective they are.
• In our last Scoop, the rise of millennials as caregivers was discussed. This article highlights that issue.

A Scoop Special Article

• As many of you know, Barbara Friedman co-founded Boston Bridge. But as many may not know her co-founder was Elana Kieffer. Elana moved to New York City a few years ago, leaving Boston Bridge behind, but always remaining a loyal member and advocating for BB in her professional life. Elana actually was the first Scoop editor. She recently sent Barbara this wonderful article about her grandmother that appeared in a blog written by a New York resident. In this season of family and caring, it seemed the perfect time to highlight one of our own. Esther is the embodiment of aging in place!  Enjoy the blog!

Happy Holidays to All, and May 2020 Be One of Kindness!

We look forward to seeing you January 15th.

Barbara Friedman and Colleen Morrissey, Boston Bridge Board Members