The ARCH National Respite Network, through their ACL-funded grant to manage the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center, invites you to join a webinar to highlight the recent release of the Cultural and Linguistic Competence Assessment for Respite Organizations (CLCARO) and a companion guide for using the assessment.

This virtual event is free and includes a full day of sessions on how to best meet the mental health needs of older adults. In partnership with Rush University’s E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) anticipates offering free continuing education credit for several professions.

Disability, aging, health, and housing organizations — along with state officials and policymakers — can collaborate to expand access to TBI programs and services. Presenters will discuss types of services that can enhance housing stability and best practices for collaboration between housing, health, and social care services to increase access to those supports.

The proposed rule would set new standards for prompt, safe, and dignified assistance; require enhanced training for airline employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with disabilities and handle passengers’ wheelchairs; and specify actions that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged during transport.

The RERC on Technology for People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing will conduct research, development, and evaluation activities toward understanding and optimizing technologies and services used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

ACL has released an Innovations in Nutrition Programs and Services (INNU) cooperative agreement funding opportunity for innovative approaches to enhance the quality, effectiveness, and outcomes of nutrition programs and services in the aging services network through collaboration with senior centers.

Commit to Connect, ACL’s initiative to reduce social isolation and loneliness, is hosting virtual office hours for professionals interested in public health strategies to advance social connection. Sample discussion topics include partnering with public health departments around policy, systems, and environmental change and identifying sustainable social connection programs.

Earlier today, Alison Barkoff testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee about the Older Americans Act, the critical importance of its programs and the aging services network that implements its programs, and ACL’s work to strengthen and support both. The OAA was last reauthorized in 2020 and will expire on September 30, 2024.

Every two years, NIDILRR releases this report to provide stakeholders with detailed information on how NIDILRR funding is being used, how NIDILRR research is making a difference, what products are being produced by NIDILRR grants, highlights from former grantees, and how NIDILRR is collaborating across the federal government to achieve its mission.

Webinar participants will learn about the Strategies Center and hear from senior leaders from the White House and across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The speakers will discuss work that federal agencies are doing to strengthen the nation’s capacity to support community living by improving the recruitment, retention, and training of this vital workforce.