The Age Guide: Perspectives on the Aging Journey

Aging Unfiltered: The Power of Intergenerational Advocacy – with Arielle Galinsky

• Age Guide • Season 4 • Episode 9

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In this episode, welcome Arielle Galinsky, Harvard Kennedy School MPP candidate, CEO and co‑founder of The Legacy Project Inc., and Teen Vogue contributor, to discuss the power of intergenerational advocacy.

Arielle shares her personal journey, from her passion for aging policy to co‑founding The Legacy Project at Tufts, where college students interview and build friendships with older adults to preserve their life stories. She explains how these connections combat isolation, foster empathy, and spark policy engagement.

Whether you're a Gen Z changemaker, a caregiver, or simply care about making aging policy more equitable, this episode highlights how intergenerational connection leads to civic action and systems change.

Resources: 

The Trump Administration Is Going After Your Grandma, Teen Vogue Article

The Legacy Project

Eldera

Aging Unfiltered: The Era of Elders – with Dana Griffin

Wish Act- HR 4289

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Gretchen:

Hello and welcome to The Age Guide Podcast, perspectives on the Aging Journey. Today we are joined by Arielle Galinsky, writer advocate, and co-founder of the Legacy Project to talk about the power of intergenerational advocacy. Arielle recently made waves with a Teen Vogue article calling on young people to stand up for older adults and protect vital programs like the Older Americans Act. Her message hits especially close to home right now here in Illinois, we just held an advocacy day to mark the 60th anniversary of the Older Americans Act, and older adults caregivers advocates came to gather to March, write letters and speak out against proposed cuts and harmful restructuring to the bill. Arielle is helping to build a new generation of voices who understand that aging is everyone's issue and that combating ageism starts with showing up. So welcome. Thank you so much for being here with us today.

Arielle:

Thanks for having me, Gretchen.

Gretchen:

Wonderful. So your recent Teen Vogue article makes such a compelling case for why young people should advocate for older adults. What sparked your passion for this topic and why did you choose Teen Vogue as the platform to share that message? I thought that was so interesting.

Arielle:

Yeah, no, I'm, I'm happy to talk about that. So, I, I've always been passionate, personally about aging policy. That's my area of study. It's my North star. Um, and it's what I plan to pursue my career doing. I do realize that aging policy is not the sexiest of topics and for a lot of young people, that's not the key area of interest. Um, and I will also say that. The federal administration, there's a lot happening, you know, with crackdowns on immigration with higher education, um, being attacked. There are a lot of things and policy areas that I know a lot of young people are worried about in this current moment, and I think that is critical that there's advocacy in that realm. Mm-hmm. And I will say with aging policy, while I always believe that it should be an intergenerational movement, I. Specifically and felt very strongly at this current moment, especially with everything going on, as there as it, um, relates to ACL potentially being eliminated, restructured, however you wanna put it.

Gretchen:

Right. The federal agency, the administration and community living that oversees the funding that goes out for Older Americans Act services. Yes. They were talking about restructuring that.

Arielle:

Yes. And the, the potential cuts with this one big, beautiful bill to Medicaid and Medicare and how that will affect older populations. Mm-hmm. That wasn't even in the radar when I wrote this article, but all of it Right. Has such a great impact on aging populations and I think what often goes by the radar is that this affects younger people as well, both in the current moment and in the future moment. And my hope was to draw attention to that. And I will say that. You know, this doesn't get a lot of attention in magazines like Teen Vogue. I was a very avid reader of Teen Vogue, and I would read about celebrities and pop culture and sometimes policy areas of interest, but not about aging. Yeah. And I knew that the readership is, tends to be younger. It tends to be, you know, teens, 20 somethings who, uh. Care and are interested in what they have to put out, and so I felt like it was a fitting placement to be able to bring attention to something that might not be on the normal social media cycle for a younger. Mm-hmm. To bring attention to the, the critical areas of interest and why people should care and get involved.

Gretchen:

I'm so glad that you did that, that you thought about that connection and, and Teen Vogue did turn out to be a great placement for it. Right. And like you said, I think a lot of people see these issues and. And even the issue of ageism, which is the topic of our podcast series right now, is an issue that only affects older people. Right. And so how do you think it shows up in the lives of younger people too? How can younger generations benefit from being a part of this fight?

Arielle:

Absolutely. I mean, I, I'll start with more broadly. I think combating ageism is creating a more socially acceptable society that doesn't discriminate based on different characteristics. And I think that goes with age as it goes with, uh, many other characteristics and factors as a person. So I think that's one reason why people should care. But I also think it's a misconception that. Solely older adults face ageism. I mean mm-hmm. Really, it's very prevalent, whether you see it in the media about the 2024 election or, uh, within the workplace. Ageism is, is a real thing as it relates to older Americans, but it on the other spectrum, it also affects younger people as well. There's been so many times that as a younger person, uh, who's passionate about health policy and politics and all these things, I've been told by. Individuals older than myself who've been in this field, that it's not my place. That it, this is, you know, I should pay my dues before I go into the advocacy circle, before I go to lawmakers and talk about why these areas are so critical. Or my message comes off as cutesy, right? Because I'm. 23 years old, and I care so deeply about these policy issues, but I've started doing this work many, many, you know, years ago. And when you're in your teens, you're not taken as seriously. And so I think that is a direct impact of ageism being too young to be effective or being perceived to not be effective, or that you don't have something to contribute, whether that's in the workplace, whether that's in the advocacy realm, or whether that's. In many other areas, I think what's critical is that there's a recognition that people of all ages can contribute that intergenerational perspective is important, and that counting someone out merely due to their age is inherently ageist and mm-hmm must be something that employers, lawmakers, uh, media must take into account. So,

Gretchen:

yes, I totally agree with that. And I think all generations need to support each other in this, in this fight. So like you said, it takes away your voice, whether you're a younger person or an older person, when you're not taken seriously, when you're not allowed a seat at the table. That affects all of us, because we're missing that perspective. So, mm-hmm. I, I totally agree with you, and we've talked to a number of advocates who have said that they think ageism goes across the age spectrum. But it's really good to hear from a younger person, you know, how it has affected you personally.'cause that really hits home. Now let's switch gears a little bit. You've co-founded the Legacy project, and I understand that that is to build connections between generations. Tell us more about that. What does the project aim to do, and how does it serve as a tool to challenge this ageism that we're talking about?

Ariel:

Yeah. Well thank you for asking about TLP. So the legacy project, or TLP by its nickname is, uh, now growing to be across the nation. It started in Massachusetts and Tuf at Tufts University where, where myself and my fellow co-founders all went to undergrad. We started it there as an organization that stopped to. Bring together college students with older adults in our local host communities. And something that is really critical and unique about our project in terms of intergenerational programming is that it's really reliant on storytelling. So older adults share their life histories with. Their younger matches and likewise, your their younger matches share about their stories. And the bidirectional component is really critical. It's something that we believe that age divide friendships, age gap friendships. Something that makes it really worthwhile is that you can learn from one another and that both. Both the older and the younger bring something to the table. And that's what TLP really tries to do through our storytelling lens. So over the course of an academic year, the younger and older match meet every week during the fall semester to learn about one another, to conduct interviews. And in the spring semester, those interviews in those stories are then taken into the form of. Prose into a chapter of a book that then gets published as a collective. The whole chapter publishes a book with all the life histories of the older adults and some snippets of the younger person as well. And so it's a really wonderful way to uplift legacy, of course, also to create these intergenerational friendships, which we believe is a tool to combat social isolation and loneliness, given that younger and older adults are some of the most heavily affected by this. Epidemic of social isolation and loneliness, but also to better understand one another, to realize that even though there might be 50, 60, 70 years that divide, that that friendship, that there's still commonalities, there's still shared passions, um, that allow for that friendship to really bloom and blossom. And so. We believe that through this process there's a better understanding about different generations through getting to know the older, younger, and it goes both ways. And through that these, these ideas, these pervasive ideas of ageism against the, an older generation or against the younger generation, lessen because you better understand that person, better, understand where they're coming from, and realize that you actually have more in common that you might have thought. Prior.

Gretchen:

Yes. Those relationships, they're just critical, right? Mm-hmm. So how do people get involved in the legacy project? Are they students or not necessarily?

Arielle:

Yeah, so we have students who, um, start chapters at their college or university. Oh, okay. We have, um, 25, uh, that will be at, uh, active this fall, which is really exciting. And yeah, around the country. Around the country? Yes. Wow. We have some in Massachusetts and now some in California. So really spanning the coast to coast, which is really exciting. I will, it's students who find us or we find them if, if we're able, it's often students who are passionate about, you know, maybe they're pre-med, maybe they're interested in studying sociology and wanna better understand older adults. Oftentimes they are, uh, passionate about journalism and want to better understand how they can use their, uh, storytelling talents to act actively and authentically convey the stories of people in their communities and. I think the shared through line is it's people who care about wanting to better understand people that they might not get to interact with on a day-to-day basis. And so we've had these chapter leaders who are real stars in their college or university communities and who start a chapter of TLP and they're an affiliate of us and we work one-on-one with them to help them grow their chapter, really build uh, other students who are passionate about this work into their, into their work on their college campus. And then. We find a senior community in that area that they can pair one-on-one with for the academic year.

Gretchen:

Oh, perfect. That's really interesting. We had a similar project on the podcast a few episodes ago. It was ra, have you heard of Aldera? That's a intergenerational mentorship, um, online virtual project. I feel like there's, there would be a lot of synergy, um, between your two, um, groups kind of working on this, breaking down the barriers and forming those relationships and, and talking and sharing story and that kind of thing.

Arielle:

Yeah. And that's wonderful. I I've definitely heard of their work and the virtual components impactful because there's so many older adults that might not live close to a college or university campus, but still wanna purchase this type of work. And so, mm-hmm. Definitely looking, TOP is looking, how can we expand, um, remotely as well to really capture those, those olders and youngers who wanna partake Yes. Be based in a college or university town.

Gretchen:

All right, Arielle, can you tell us a little bit about advocacy efforts that you've been involved with or that you're currently involved with that are addressing issues of age equity or general advocacy around legislation?

Arielle:

Yeah, absolutely. So I am very passionate about all things related to long-term care financing. I really believe that the US can have a better model that. Isn't reliant on individuals spending on their assets to qualify for Medicaid or uh, having enough financial wherewithal to be able to private pay for a nursing home facility. I think there's a happy medium that isn't so reliant on familial caregivers having to give up their jobs to cover long-term care. And I say all because other countries are doing it better, and I believe that we can find a federal and state. Based models that could better pay for long-term care in the us. And

Gretchen:

so that sounds wonderful. Let's hear what you've got.

Arielle:

Um, so Washington State, as you might know, is one of, is the only current state currently that has, has a, a state-based long-term care insurance program. Um, it is, you pay into the system for about 10 years and. You are able to get a payout of, of around $30,000 after you've qualified, and it's wonderful that they were able to politically get that through because no other state has been able to replicate that to date on the federal level. There is a bill, uh, called the WISH Act. Um, it was sponsored by representative Tom Swazi from New York. Bill seeks to kind of revolutionize what long-term care financing in the US can look like, and it does so by providing a catastrophic financing mechanism or proposing a fi catastrophic financing mechanism that would basically kick in, uh, depending on your income between the years of. One to five years of when you might be eligible. And in that gap time you would likely get private long-term care insurance or you would rely on familial supports as people do today. And really what this would do is it would provide a federal catastrophic model for long-term care and it would incentivize private long-term care insurance companies to come into the market, provide more affordable plans so people can have coverage and not worry about not being able to afford their care. Now it. A perfect model, maybe not. I think there's a lot of criticism back and forth, but there's also a lot of praise that there is some focus on long-term care financing and wanting to reinitiate something on the federal level. After the Class Act, which was a part of the Affordable Care Act, was, you know, it never really went anywhere. Um, and so that was the last time that was that there was federal attention on a long-term care financing program. And so all of this is to say is the Wish Act. It is currently in Congress. It's bipartisan. There's a Republican co-sponsor and it doesn't have a ton of attention right now. Maybe it's not the political moment, but it is something I believe very deeply in. There's a number of different co-sponsors on the bill, um, a number of different organizations that support it, and I believe strongly in trying to bring more young people into this conversation, getting them to support the bill, or at least speak to their legislators about the importance of moving forward a long-term care financing option. For our parents and for ourselves to be able to afford care when we, um, reach that age. So

Gretchen:

yes, and that affects all of us, even before we're at the age where we need to start thinking about long-term care. Right, because if you end up as a young person needing to care for a family member, a loved one, correct. That affects your income. Your ability to stay full-time in your job and to care for your children or you know, other family members. So it really impacts each one of us in different ways throughout the lifespan. So I think that sounds really important

Arielle:

and there's so many youth caregivers and I think that's often overlooked there. The an estimate recently, I believe, by a Hopkins study that showed that. There's 3.6 estimated youth caregivers, 3.6 million, excuse me, 3.6 million. 6 million youth caregivers in the United States. You don't hear those stories very often and those individuals, right? I, I saw what, you know, as my, uh, grandmother was going through, um, in need of long-term care and supporting that effort. There's a lot of work that goes into being a caregiver, especially for the school. Caregiver. Right. And so you have to make decisions about whether to you go to school, go to extracurriculars, do things that normal, you know, you associate to a normal childhood. Mm-hmm. And not that those attention and resources are being diverted to being a caregiver. And so there can be more state and federal supports to ensure that youth caregivers are provided with other options to, to, uh, make sure that care can still be received while also being able to experience a normal youth.

Gretchen:

Yes. So any kind of solutions that we could come up with. Even like you said, just starting the dialogue around what can we do about this and making sure that we elevate that so that legislators start thinking about this. And even if it's not, like you said, the perfect Bill, we should be having these conversations at a national level.

Arielle:

I will say like the conversations is such a critical piece that I think is often overlooked. Think about the public education around long-term care. There's a very high percentage of Americans that believe Medicare covers long-term care. It doesn't. It covers, yeah. They're shocked

Gretchen:

when they find out that yes. Right.

Arielle:

That's a public education failure. Right. If we're not provide the, you know, if the federal government does not provide the system of care. At least we must make sure that people are aware of that. So when that they turn the age of six, five and they're in need of long-term care, that they're keen on the fact that they should have, you know, that saving would all those years while they were working would've been of benefit. Mm-hmm. Medicare is not to cover that cost of care. Mm-hmm. Um, that I think is a, a failure on the part of. Everyone involved in this work, right? Yeah. Like we need to do more to ensure that this is in the mainstream of the fact of the gaps in the long-term care financing system.

Gretchen:

Yes. And I wonder if part of it, I mean this is just conjecture on my part, but part of it is that none of us, I. Think that we're gonna end up in long-term care. Nobody's plan for their older years is to be in long-term care. We ask that question all the time when we're doing, um, symposiums and workshops and stuff. How many in your this room, raise your hand if you have a plan to go into long-term care someday? Nobody. That is, nobody's plan for how they wanna age. Right. It's not something that we look forward to. There's a real stigma around it, and part of that is because we need to change. Long-term care and make it a better place to live. But part of it is also that we need to be investing more in home and community-based services so that we have the option to not go into long-term care if we want to. And it sounds like that's, you know, the bill is looking at supporting caregivers. That's how we're gonna stay at home.

Ariel:

Yeah. And it provides you, I mean, the Walk Cares program in Washington state, right? It provides that payout, that 30,000 payout. So you can choose the way you wanna spend that money, right? And I think that's the critical piece. The, the, the ability to choose how you wanna age and how you wanna age with dignity. And if that's in a nursing home, then that's, that's your choice. But if that's in your, if that's in your home environment, then you should also be provided with the financial means to be able to do that.

Gretchen:

Yes. Yes. And it ends up saving the state tons of money in Medicaid anyway, as Medicaid has to step in once you spend down all your funds and it, I'm sure it costs less to give that$30,000 payout than to have somebody in long-term care for a few years even. It'll work with. Right,

Arielle:

right. And I will say it's a partial system. A lot. There's probably, there's a big percentage of people that will need more than that funding, but for some yeah. That also does fall back, at least for the first few needing

Gretchen:

care. Right. At least it's something mm-hmm. To, to help with the, the out-of-pocket costs, the caregivers pay, all of that. Yeah.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Gretchen:

Absolutely. Wonderful. Is there a way for people to get involved directly? Do you have any kind of like action alert or advocacy campaign, a letter writing campaign, or anything?

Ariel:

Yeah, so it's funny you ask that there's actually currently in motion the coalition is putting together, um, uh, an advocacy page and as well as a amplification toolkit for individuals when they go speak to their legislators, whether that's on the state or federal side, to talk about long-term care financing and specifically about the WISH Act if they're meeting with members of Congress or their staff. Um, and so, uh, if you reach out to me, uh, Gretchen, maybe you can put my email, I can, I can text yes.

Gretchen:

Yes, we'll definitely put it in the show notes. That would be great. And we can also put that, um, we can link to it from our webpage and we have an action alert, um, page at age guide too. And this is something we'd like to look into connecting and linking to yours. That sounds great. That's. So what else can young people do to make a difference? Maybe they don't really know where to start. I think the wish act might be one good place to start supporting that. But what would you say to young people who are, you know, maybe even teenagers, those in their twenties and thirties and they, they wanna become an ally in this fight against ageism and they wanna try to champion older adults. Where, where should they start?

Ariel:

I mean, I would say getting involved in an intergenerational program is a wonderful way to do that. Um, whether that's something like the Legacy Project, which. Reach out to us. We're, we're happy to have you join us. Um, or another one of the numerous intergenerational, awesome organizations operating on the national and in local levels. Getting involved in work that directly, um, you know, engages with older adults in your community is a wonderful way to, um, change the way you might think about older populations. Change your own perceptions and allow you to be, uh, a better advocate. I will also say that. Something I believe in strongly is, uh, the sharing of co generational power. And what we spoke about before is that often it's viewed that young people can't be as effective a leader because you haven't had x numbers of years of experience or whatever it might be. But actively seek out places and opportunities where you can share that power, whether that's sitting on local boards, um, within your community, in your college or university or hometown, which is something that I do in my own community. Um, and I might be the youngest person involved, but I. That's okay, because that's part of being the co generational power sharing, right? Or whether that's, uh, finding opportunities to launch a civic engagement project with, with an older adult and. Your own community. That can also be a powerful way. Try to find opportunities or create them yourself that will allow you to, to see and, and do firsthand that, that co generational power sharing. I'll also say like on the advocacy level, there are a number of wonderful organizations doing this work that you can, uh, do your part in sharing with your community. I think a lot of people just don't have aging policy. Issues on their radar, or even if they are aware, it's not the fight that they choose to invest their resources and time into. And so start a conversation on your college campus. Imagine you had on college campuses and universities across the country talking about these issues of social security or Medicare in a positive way, in a way that's trying to build up the, the potential, finding a solution rather than just continuously talking about the negative doom and gloom of what our future, yeah. Might look like, right? Like bringing those conversations to, to the surface is so critical and joining external advocacy organizations, whether that's the American Society on Aging, whether that's A A RP, justice in Aging, national Council on Aging. There's so many wonderful organizations that are doing this work on a day-to-day basis. They're, they all volunteer opportunities in ways that you can either engage via internship or engage in their volunteer circles or in some of their public policy committees that allow you to really be invested in in this work. I might also add, if you're a young person that cares about aging, I. There's not many of us, so you can reach out to me and I would love to talk to you and we can figure out how to do this work together.

Gretchen:

Excellent. I'm so glad you're available for that kind of thing. I, and I would love it if you will share this podcast afterwards once we release it too. Absolutely. Yes. We get a broader listening, um, group because that's part of what this podcast is trying to do is create awareness and if we can have more younger people hearing the stories and the opportunities. That's just gonna help everybody.

Arielle:

I totally agree. I will also say one thing that has really benefited me is going to conferences, going to, um, I love going to American Society on Aging Conference, and I learned so much by just hearing about how, how much breadth there is within the aging policy, aging services world. I think oftentimes it's, it's seen as, you know. Aging is very niche, but there's actually so much happening in this work for you to potentially get involved in. I think conferences are a great way to do that. And then also I'm, one more thing that came to mind that I did during my time when I was an undergrad is you can train to become an ombudsman. An ombudsman is an advocate within, um, uh, you know, within a community, within a state. It's in every state. Every program operates a little bit differently and. The different strengths and weaknesses, but you can train to become an advocate for local nursing home residents. And you served directly as a bridge between the nursing home communities and the state, ensuring that individuals living in, uh, nursing home institutions have, um, someone advocating for them for, uh, better dignified conditions and and whatnot. So that's an awesome way to t to tap into the work directly.

Gretchen:

A really good volunteer opportunity. Yes. Yeah. Thank you for those suggestions and ideas. Lots of great ideas. You're just full of good ideas. Arielle. Um, looking ahead, what is your hope for the future of aging in our society, for your loved ones and for yourself?

Arielle:

Yeah, so not to talk about long-term care again, but I think that's my, that's my issuer that I care so deeply about. There's everything in aging I'm keen on. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm in, invested in seeing success, but I think in long-term care specifically, I would love to see within my lifetime, Massachusetts. Pass a state-based long-term care financing insurance program like Washington State did. Mm-hmm. And I think there's potential, because there was a bill passed last year to fund an actuarial study on a long-term care financing mechanism. The study just came out this past week. You could Oh, that's exciting. It was by Milliman who conducted the analysis, and I'm hoping this serves as a perpetuating force for the Elder Affairs Committee and for other advocates to see through a plan in Massachusetts, which is where I grew up. And then I hope. This becomes a model and a framework for a national model. I would love for the United States. It is my life's dream to see the United States put forth a federal long-term care insurance program. It might not be the wish act exactly. It might be. Mm-hmm. Completely different. A lot of countries have models that we can look to to see how successful and what were the advantages and the drawbacks, but I truly believe that there is a way that we can do it better, that people don't have to worry when they hit the age of 65, if they need long-term care, whether they will be able to afford that care, whether they will have to have their child stop working so that they can care for them, whether they have to, uh, give away basically all of their wealth. That they wanted to see if to pass on through an intergenerational transfer, um, to pay for their care or to be able to qualify for Medicaid long-term care, we can do it better. And there's some states that have pilot initiatives that are really trying to work towards this, but that's my goal. And also to uplift the stories. Of caregivers and direct care workers and to address that healthcare workforce shortage and really demonstrate how much that is benefiting all of us to have these individuals really caring for older adults and people with disabilities. Um, and so I think that work often goes under the radar and we need to do more to bring it to surface.

Gretchen:

Those are some great dreams. We're right there with you. We'll, we'll just need to keep working on this and build a better future for all of us. I love your ideas.

Arielle:

Maria, I hope that it all comes to, comes to be through an intergenerational advocacy movement. That's my my goal, right? I hope that young people. And older people are able to work collectively in moving and shepherding forward a lot of these policy initiatives. I really believe that that is the way of the future and that no one generation should hold this burden on their own. It's a collective movement to, to see a better world for, for people, for older adults, and for people with disabilities and ensuring that they can receive care with dignity.

Gretchen:

Mm-hmm. Right. I love the way you see the big picture through all of this and how each of us has a, a role to play.

Arielle:

Yeah.

Gretchen:

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your passion with us. It was a joy to have you.

Arielle:

Thank you so much, Gretchen. It was such a pleasure.

Val:

Hello, and welcome to your Medicare Minutes. My name is Val Guzman and I'm the benefit Access specialist. Here at Age Guide. On this episode, we are going to talk about Medicare supplement plans, Medicare supplement plans, also known as Medigap. Plans are extra coverage that you can purchase to cover the costs that Medicare doesn't pay. This includes deductibles and copays that you normally pay out of pocket. Coming from employer provided plans, it often surprises people how much you pay with just Medicare, and the fact that there is no limit to how much you pay per year with Medicare. Medigap plans give you a peace of mind of knowing that you're more fully covered when you go to the doctor or hospital, but a ship counselor can give you more details about how these plans work and help you find a Medigap plan that works best for you.

Gretchen:

Thank you for listening to the Age Guide Perspectives on the Aging Journey. Age guide coordinates and administers many services for older adults in northeastern Illinois. Our specially trained professionals are available to answer questions and connect you with local service providers and resources. If you are interested in these services or want to learn more, go to our website@ageguide.org or call our offices at (630) 293-5990. Please follow our podcast so you can be notified in your streaming account. Thank you, and we will see you next time on The Age Guide Podcast.