These practicum models:

		Test new approaches to graduate field experiences, particularly using enriched rotations and consortia of local agencies.
		Draw new students into social work programs related to aging.
		Serve as a vehicle for enhancing geriatric field work education.

The program also provides scholarships for 40 MSW students participating in aging-rich field experiences and funding for new educational tools that can help improve these field experiences at other schools.

Model Programs
The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE), formerly the Practicum Partnership Program (PPP), has helped to launch six sites around the country that have created unique program models providing aging-rich field experiences for MSW students. Each educational model is consistent with the sites' educational philosophy and objectives and the identified needs of their respective communities. While sharing some similar components, each site has developed a unique model.

		Components of HPPAE's Aging-Rich Practicum Models
		Success to Date
		Six Program Models

Components of HPPAE's Aging-Rich Practicum Models

School-Community Partnerships
At the heart of each HPPAE site is a rich and vibrant school-community partnership. Schools of social work (either an individual school or a group of local schools) work with a consortia of at least five (and as many as 40) community agencies that serve older adults. Initially, these school-community groups co-designed their practicum experiences and now continue to oversee the projects' growth and development. To date, 16 schools and 130 agencies participate in six PPP consortia.

Experiences along the Continuum of Care
Each HPPAE program has created innovative educational opportunities that expose MSW students to older adults with diverse life histories and experiences, different types of service providers and prepare them to become leaders in the field of aging. Through rotations-which include two or more field sites per academic year and which vary from site to site-students have the opportunity to engage in a variety of activities including:

		Counseling older adults and their families
		Case management and care management
		Program planning, implementation and evaluation
		Community organizing
		Coalition building
		Research
		Policy & Advocacy

Integration with Classroom and Other Learning
These exciting practical experiences are closely linked to traditional didactic instruction, as well. Each of the sites includes a seminar for participating students conducted by faculty, field staff and practitioners from participating agencies. Most integrate the practicum experience into a broader curriculum or specialty in aging or gerontology.

In addition, some sites offer lecture series, workshops and other special events that enrich students' understanding of aging and the needs of older adults. These activities are often open to the entire school of social work, as well as the broader community, again reinforcing the program's commitment to this "town-gown" cooperation, communications and partnership.

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Success to Date

With support from the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) has funded at 72 MSW programs in 33 states since its inception in 1999. To date, over 800 students have been trained through the HPPAE to become leaders in the field. Approximately 700 agencies with an aging focus have supported this capacity building model. The goal is to train over 2500 social workers in this model by 2011. Thanks to the sustained and committed efforts of these programs, they have collectively raised more than $5.4 million to sustain the growth and development of their respective programs.

The result: a significant and growing cohort of students, educators, field instructors and agencies prepared to improve community-based and other services to older adults.

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Six Model Programs

The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education model sites include:

The Albany Hartford Internships in Aging Project Consortium- State University of New York at Albany School of Social Welfare

In partnership with 9 area agencies serving older adults, the State University of New York at Albany School of Welfare has developed a model that includes two years of field placements in a variety of settings throughout the continuum of care for older adults. First-year students take part in a special "Seminar on Aging" and second-year students choose from ten courses and an integrative seminar to create a curriculum in aging. New funding initiatives have enabled Albany to almost double the amount of stipends offered to its second-year students. These funds, combined with successful recruiting efforts have helped Albany expand its program to provide 16 second-year internships in 2002-03.

For more information, click here.

Geriatric Social Work Education Consortia (GSWEC)- Southern California

This unique model is administered by the Partners in Care Foundation and includes the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Social Welfare, University of Southern California, School Of Social Work, California State Long Beach, Department Of Social Work and California State University, Long Angeles, School Of Social Work As well as 40 partner agencies. The theme of this ambitious effort is leadership. In addition to their site rotations, student interns, all of whom receive stipends, participate in task rotations that take into account the broader roles social workers play in their agencies, in team building, and in interdisciplinary practice. GSWEC has formally identified all of these and related skills and articulated them as outcomes, clearly measured as competencies. The goal: promote innovation and leadership for its students no matter their professional level.

For more information, click here.

The Geriatric Field Practicum Development Program- Hunter College School of Social Work/Brookdale Center on Aging

In New York City, the Hunter College School of Social Work and the Brookdale Center on Aging are collaborating with 9 local agencies serving older adults to provide dynamic aging-rich field experiences for its second-year students. The program provides a summer paid internship at consortium sites for second-year students, provides scholarships, boasts an Advanced Seminar in Gerontological Social Work taught by some of the schools' leading faculty, and includes a high-profile lecture series on aging issues for Hunter's 300 first-year MSW students.

For more information, click here.

Strengthening Geriatric Social Work- The University of Michigan School of Social Work

This Practicum Partnership project, led by the University of Michigan, involves 20 agencies and churches that serve older people in Greater Detroit and Washtenaw County. These sites annually provide fieldwork rotations for 18 first-and second-year MSW students, who receive $12,000 stipends. Enriched by an integrative seminar on aging, these field experiences are designed to expose students to a continuum of services, multidisciplinary care, and a range of practice interventions on behalf of older adults in rural and urban settings and in direct service and policy environments.

For more information, click here.

The Hartford Bay Area Practicum Consortium- Northern California

The University of California, Berkeley, working with San Francisco State University School of Social Work and San Jose State University School of Social Work, anchors this site. They in turn team with five county departments of adult and aging services in the Bay Area. The Consortium represents a unique partnership between academic social work and local government and hopes to train more and needed social workers to serve older adults in government-supported programs, which have been expanded by state legislation in recent years. Each school of social work anticipates placing 11 MSW students in practicum sites over two years, for a total of 33 students. This total figure represents a projected increase of 50% in the number of students trained in aging at all the schools.

For more information, click here.

Agencies for Gerontology Intercultural Field Training (AGIFT)- The University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work

AGIFT is a school-community partnership between the University of Houston and 10 community-based agencies and sites serving older adults. First-year and advanced standing MSW students (including representatives from Texas Southern, a historically black university) rotate among these agencies, which serve multicultural populations. Second-year students have a special placement in a geriatric interdisciplinary team training (GITT) internship, where they learn alongside and along with medical, nursing and other health professions students. Through both years, students provide more than 1,100 field practice hours. Didactic instruction includes a required field seminar that rotates among the field sites, as well as a gerontological concentration for advanced standing and second-year MSW students. During the first three years of its operation, approximately 40 students will participate in the AGIFT program.

For more information, click here.

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HPPAE and the Social Work Leadership Institute
To learn more about the HPPAE and the Social Work Leadership Institute please click here.

Patricia Volland, MBA, MSW, serves as Principal Investigator for the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging.

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July 1, 2008