AARP Foundation has awarded a grant to the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston for a two-year project to increase access to economic opportunities for older people of color in the greater Boston area.

The $288,000 grant will fund the project that builds on the institute’s age-friendly work across the state, particularly the Age Friendly Boston Initiative, and its expertise in economic security issues in later life.

“We’re very excited because this project addresses economic security, a crucial need facing older adults,” said Caitlin Coyle, a research fellow at the institute and lead researcher on the project.

“It begins to answer a question we have encountered in a number of age-friendly community initiatives,” she said. “The question is, from a practical perspective, how do we build the capacity for authentic equity and inclusion?”

The project will be a joint effort by the institute’s Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging and CANALA, a research collaboration of UMass Boston’s Institute for Asian American Studies, the Institute for New England Native American Studies, The Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, and the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture. Continue reading →