Libraries and Aging 101: Educate, Engage and Empower Mature Adults

Many communities are home to an aging population. Libraries in these communities need to be able to educate, empower and engage older adults.

In this four-week course, librarian and gerontologist Fatima Perkins shares data-driven strategies that will help you assess the needs of the older population in your community and create impactful programs and services.

Each week will target a different aspect of services for this population and provide an opportunity for discussion with the instructor and other students. Throughout the course, you will be encouraged to develop a signature program or service for a mature audience with at least one outcome measure.

Students will be assigned a program mentor upon request. This will be someone in the field (library or gerontology) that can assist you with developing a program/service for a mature audience.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the relevance of national, state and local demographic changes, and how these changes impact library service
• Increase your ability to identify and address the needs of mature audiences; and
• Enhance your collaborative capacity to improve program development and effectiveness. 

The instructor, Fatima Perkins, is the Director of Community Outreach & Advocacy for the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging. She has engaged with the senior services network for more than 20 years, sharing her skills and talents with Greater Cleveland Volunteers, Alzheimer's Association, Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Cuyohoga County Public Library. As a librarian, she developed more than 5,000 programs including health and wellness initiatives. 

This course is for any library staff person interested in creating or enhancing impactful programs and services for the ever growing older population.