About ASA's Civic Engagement Program

Working Definition of Civic Engagement With Older Adults
Examples of Civic Engagement With Older Adults
About ASA's Civic Engagement Program
How Civic Engagement Fits Into ASA's Strategic Plan

A Working Definition of Civic Engagement With Older Adults

Late life civic engagement encompasses actions wherein older adults participate in activities of personal and public concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community. Late life civic engagement can take many forms, from individual volunteerism to paid part or full time work to organizational involvement to electoral participation. A community can be a neighborhood, city, county, nation or the world.

Examples of Civic Engagement With Older Adults:

• Older adults from a faith community support and participate in a reading program in an inner city school.
• Retired physicians volunteer to help low income community residents with their health needs.
• At age 58, a retired hairdresser achieves a lifelong dream of becoming a public school teacher.
• An organization recruits retired executives from banks and financial services firms to work with young entrepreneurs on preparing business plans for new ventures.
• A public library depends upon older volunteers to carry out an oral history project to capture the memories of men and women who have helped shape local history.

All of these people and organizations are engaging in life enriching community services that are personally meaningful and socially beneficial. This is civic engagement with older adults.  View others examples in the "What's Happening" section of the site.

About ASA's Civic Engagement Program

The ASA Civic Engagement Program funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, focuses on civic engagement as a part of ASA's overall strategic commitment to strengths based approaches to older adults.  This Atlantic Philanthropies grant provides us with the opportunity to develop a strategic focus on civic engagement within ASA's leadership and promote the concept within our membership. For the purposes of this program, late life civic engagement encompasses individual and collective actions wherein older adults participate in activities of personal and public and personal concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community.  This is a working definition and continues to evolve as we explore the area of civic engagement (see more about working definition above).

ASA, as the largest professional association working in the field of aging, has both the responsibility for and the potential to expand awareness of the concepts and practice of civic engagement. Our aim is to promote a public image of older adults that respects their wisdom, dignity, and experience as a social, economic and spirited force for the benefit of society. Through raising the level of discussion within the broad field of aging and presenting best practices for our members to emulate, we believe that we have the potential to greatly expand civic engagement opportunities for older adults in this country.

How Civic Engagement Fits Into ASA's Strategic Plan

Why Civic Engagement Now?
Redefining the Retirement Years

While more and more older adults are experiencing longer periods of healthy and active retirement, our society still predominantly sees old age as a time of problems, as a time of letting go: of jobs, friends, strenuous recreation, and life itself. Where it is true that age does bring loss, less recognized is the potential of elders to lead fulfilling and contributive lives. Our whole society benefits when older adults, with their wisdom developed from a lifetime of experience, are given opportunities to further grow and transmit their skills and perspectives through initiatives based on their strengths.