Celebrating Our 10th Year of Working to Improve How People Experience Aging
September 2022 – August 2023 marks Embracing Aging’s 10th anniversary year.
To commemorate this milestone, we will share highlights from our work to make York County a great place to age. Our first memory honors how Embracing Aging began.
Although this month marks the start of Embracing Aging’s 10th anniversary year, the genesis for this initiative began way before that, nearly 110 years ago!
This is when donor Anna Gardner gifted her family’s estate to the care of older single women. After growing the estate, a mansion was purchased and called the Hahn Home. For 40 years, the women residing there had their living expenses paid for by the Hahn Home.
After the sale of the Hahn Home in 2007, an endowment was established at YCCF.
The boards of YCCF and Hahn Home discussed how to best carry-on Anna Gardner’s wishes.
They knew the importance of addressing the stigma of aging because ageism, which is stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination based on age, harms individuals, older people as a group, and the community as a whole.
YCCF partnered with York College of Pennsylvania to host an event to dispel aging myths. The event featured keynote speaker Dr. Ruth Garrett, author of a book called Embracing Aging.
In addition to addressing the ways people think, feel, and act towards aging, YCCF also wanted to better understand the barriers facing older adults.
YCCF commissioned a study to assess community needs. We hired Partners for Livable Communities to help with this. The assessment included several local focus groups led by Polk-Lepson. This study, known as The Embracing Aging Study, identified gaps and provided guidance on how to create a York County that is both a great place to grow up and grow older.
Recognizing the opportunity to make a significant impact on many more people, YCCF established Embracing Aging as one of its high-impact initiatives. The Hahn Home Fund supports the work of Embracing Aging.
We honor Anna Gardner’s legacy and use it to fuel our drive to change the culture around aging. Our goal is to create a vibrant York County where all ages thrive.
