The Geriatric Social Work Initiative, supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, collaborates with social work education programs to prepare needed, aging-savvy social workers and improve the care and well-being of older adults and their families. Specifically, the Geriatric Social Work Initiative:

Cultivates faculty leaders in gerontological education and research through:
		The Faculty Scholars Program, which is training academic leaders to teach, mentor, do cutting-edge research, and prepare the next generation of social workers to serve older adults,
		The Doctoral Fellows Program, which is recruiting, sustaining, and preparing a cadre of talented doctoral students in geriatric social work, and
		The Doctoral Fellows Pre-Dissertation Award Program, which aims to expose more doctoral students to gerontological social work research.

Develops excellent training opportunities in real-world settings through:
		The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education, formerly the Partnership Practicum Program, which is developing high-quality models of, and disseminating new knowledge about, aging-rich field education at schools of social work and community agencies across the country.

Infuses gerontological competencies into social work curricula and teaching through:
		The National Center for Gerontological Social Work (Gero-Ed Center), which promotes institutionally-driven, sustainable changes in foundation curricula and social work programs and develops policy initiatives for the broader adoption of gerontological educational resources.

For information about the Hartford-funded programs of the Geriatric Social Work Initiative:

James O'Sullivan serves as the Program Officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation for these social work programs. He can be contacted at jfosullivan@jhartfound.org.

July 1, 2008