Thursday Ramble: A life in Public Interest Work 71

Today is ABA Giving Day

I don't talk much about my work life. 

I have devoted the past 25 years to protecting the rights and dignity of adults as we age. The first decade of it was spent in a non-profit legal aid program providing direct legal assistance to persons 60 and older (the age was a funding condition), the past 15 years I have been on the team at the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging doing research, training, and policy work.  We help the advocates who are on the front line understand the issues and options so they can be more effective. I have had to honor of being director of the Commission for nearly two years now. 

We are also a non-profit.  While the bulk of our funding comes from grants, consulting contracts and the ABA, a critical part of it comes from individual donors.  Gifts from individual donors makes it possible for us to do work beyond the scope of other funding, and to continue advocacy on projects that the funding has closed on.  Such as the dementia and criminal justice project, it closed a year ago, and I am still providing training and technical assistance to improve the treatment of persons living with dementia in the criminal justice system. 

The critical issues we are working on now include, understanding legal capacity, reform and replacement of adult guardianship, and abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.  These are issues that impact every family, as our loved one's age, and as we get older ourselves. 

Every gift no matter how large or small makes a difference in our being able to do this important work.  Click here to support the work of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging. 

I did a post for Giving Day last year, our first time participating in Giving Day, and I was blown away by gifts in honor of Travel Penguin, THANK YOU, bloggers and blog readers are such a wonderful extended family of friends.