For Immediate Release
Contact:
Carrie Murdock deGuzman
1.703.519.2057, cmurdock@cswe.org
August 24, 2009 – ALEXANDRIA, VA––The CSWE Gero-Ed Center has created the Specialized Gerontology Program, which collectively has awarded nearly $160,000 in funding to 16 social work programs to establish concentrations, specializations, minors, or certificates focused on gerontology.
The Specialized Gerontology Program granted the institutions up to $10,000 each over a 2-year period for use in their programs that offer undergraduate and graduate social work degrees. Funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, this program is the first of its kind to provide resources for developing, implementing, and institutionalizing an aging curricular structure beyond foundation-level knowledge and skills.
“We are infusing gerontology into social work curricula at a whole new level,” said Nancy Hooyman, coprincipal investigator of the CSWE Gero-Ed Center and Hooyman Gerontology Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. “Our Specialized Gerontology Program satisfies an increased demand among students and faculty seeking to tailor their education to meeting the unique and growing needs of the older adult population.”
The CSWE Gero-Ed Center designed the Specialized Gerontology Program to increase the number of social workers trained in aging issues and increase the visibility of higher education institutions that prioritize gerontology. Concentrations, specializations, and certificates at the graduate level, as well as minors and certificates at the undergraduate level, will be made possible through Specialized Gerontology funding. The 2-year funding cycle started July 1, 2009, and ends June 30, 2011.
The social work programs awarded Specialized Gerontology Funding are Aurora University; Binghamton University; College at Brockport, SUNY; College of St. Catherine/University of St. Thomas; Dominican University; Florida State University; Hunter College; Louisiana State University; Loyola University; North Carolina State University; Saint Louis University/University of Missouri, St. Louis; Springfield College; University of Maine; University of Pennsylvania; University of Utah; and Yeshiva University.
Founded in 1929, the John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of training, research, and service system innovations that promote the health and independence of America’s older adults. Through its grant making, the Foundation seeks to strengthen the nation’s capacity to provide effective, affordable care to this rapidly increasing older population by educating “aging-prepared” health professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers) and developing innovations that improve and better integrate health and supportive services. John A. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950s. Additional information about the Foundation and its programs is available atwww.jhartfound.org.
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a nonprofit national association representing more than 3,000 individual members, as well as graduate and undergraduate programs of professional social work education. Founded in 1952, this partnership of educational and professional institutions, social welfare agencies, and private citizens is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the sole accrediting agency for social work education.
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For more information on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center, visit
The Gero Ed Center.