Strengthening Person-Centered, Trauma-Informed Services for Older Adults: Presentation Opportunity

Proposals due Sunday, November 1, 2026
Learn more and submit a proposal

ACL is helping aging service organizations better understand how a person's life experiences can shape the way they seek help, build relationships with providers, and respond to services and supports.

For older adults who have experienced trauma, seemingly routine interactions like answering personal questions, welcoming a new worker into the home, navigating an unfamiliar service system, or experiencing a loss of control can be difficult. Person-centered, trauma-informed approaches encourage service providers to understand those experiences and deliver support in ways that build trust, respect individual preferences, and give older adults a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their lives.

Through its Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program, ACL supports community-based services for Holocaust survivors, other older adults with a history of trauma, and their family caregivers, while strengthening person-centered, trauma-informed approaches in aging services. This work reflects ACL's broader commitment to helping older adults remain in their homes and communities with dignity, independence, and access to the supports they need.

Lessons from this work have relevance across populations and aging services. Organizations that serve older adults can consider how their everyday practices, from the way staff communicate and build relationships to how services are planned and delivered, affect people who may have experienced trauma. Building this understanding into aging services can help organizations become more responsive to the people and communities they serve.

An Opportunity to Share and Learn

ACL-supported efforts are also creating opportunities for aging professionals to learn from one another. The Jewish Federations of North America's Center on Aging, Trauma, and Holocaust Survivor Care is accepting session proposals for its Training Workshop 2027: Advancing Healthy Aging, April 6-8, 2027, in New York City.

The Center is inviting practitioners, researchers, and others working in aging services to propose 60-minute, in-person sessions sharing their experiences with person-centered, trauma-informed approaches. Proposals may highlight a promising practice or program model, research findings, challenges encountered in the field, or lessons that could help others strengthen their work with older adults.