Elder Law Prof Blog

NSCLC offers free webinar on Olmstead-Ten Years After

REVISITING THE OLMSTEAD RULING: KEEPING MORE OLDER ADULTS OUT OF NURSING HOMES

Presenters: NSCLC Attorneys Eric Carlson & Gene Coffey

Date: Thursday, October 28, 2010 Time : 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT / 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Too many people still are forced into nursing homes in spite of the fact that those who need long-term service and supports can better maintain their independence and dignity receiving home and community-based services. The Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead Ruling has ultimately required states to choose between operating state programs in ways that allow people with disabilities to remain integrated in their communities or face legal challenges. However, in spite of much post-Olmstead progress, there are still challenges to reducing unnecessary institutionalizations.

The National Senior Citizens Law Center has published a new report, "10-Plus Years After the Olmstead Ruling: Progress, Problems, and Opportunities." The report chronicles the advancements made in the availability of community-based service options in the aftermath of the Olmstead decision, and identifies many of the barriers that remain and opportunities for overcoming them. On October 28th, 2010, NSCLC will present a webinar that will provide an overview of the report.

Register now for this free National Senior Citizens Law Center Webinar. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/729890152 After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Council of Europe calls for an end to institutionalization of persons with disabilities

Yesterday in a formal "comment" the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammerberg, called for an end to inhuman treatment of persons with disabilities.  Referring to the need to put a stop to impunity for deaths and abuses of persons within psychiatric and social care institutions, and drawing from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Commissioner Hammarberg emphasises the right to independent living. His comment also points to the continued failure of States to develop appropriate systems of community-based services.  

 

This failure, the continued reliance on institutional care and the associated risks of human rights abuses, places on states "an obligation to set up and support truly independent national monitoring bodies, and to ensure adequate resources for such bodies", he says. The widely accepted purpose of such bodies is to prevent torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment of people in such institutions. 

 

Read the document.

Via Mental Disability Advocacy Centre

NIJ home page features elder abuse related topics and webcast on prosecutorial discretion

Via Lori Siegel/ ABA Eldebar Listserv:

The FEATURED TOPIC this week on the home page of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)—the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice—is “Preventing and Prosecuting Elder Abuse.”  This highlights and provides easy access to a transcript and podcast of a session by that name from the NIJ annual conference last June.  Participants at that session included:

• Andy Mao, Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud and Elder Justice, Civil Fraud Section, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
• Shelly Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
• Lori Stiegel, Senior Attorney, Commission on Law and Aging, American Bar Association, Washington, D.C.
• Page Ulrey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, King County Prosecutor's Office, Seattle

The session focused on two NIJ-funded studies.  Shelly discussed her study that looked at factors affecting a prosecutor’s decision to bring an elder abuse case.  I had the privilege of presenting preliminary findings of our study assessing five court-focused elder abuse initiatives across the country.  Page discussed our findings and their implications to the field; Andy facilitated the session.

Thanks go to Carrie Mulford of NIJ, whose portfolio includes elder abuse, for organizing the conference session and for doing whatever it took to have NIJ give elder abuse such prominent coverage on its home page.

Through this week, you can access the transcript and podcast on the NIJ home page:

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/

After this week, you can still find the transcript and podcast (and lots of other good information) on NIJ’s elder abuse page:http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/crime/elder-abuse/welcome.htm

Dep't of Justice schedules hearings on proposed ADA rules

Notice of Public Hearings on the Advance Notices of Proposed
Rulemaking to Revise the ADA Implementing Regulations

The Department of Justice has scheduled three public hearings on four Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRMs), which seek public comment on the possibility of revising the ADA regulations to address accessible web information and services, movie captioning and video description, accessibility of Next Generation 9-1-1, and accessible equipment and furniture. The ANPRMs were published in the Federal Register on July 26, 2010, and the comment period for them closes on January 24, 2011.

The public hearings are scheduled for the following dates and locations:

• November 18, 2010, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., CST, at
  Access Living, 115 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60654.
• December 16, 2010, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., EST, at
  the United States Access Board, 1331 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004.
• January 2011 in San Francisco, CA, at a date and location to be announced in the near future on the ADA Home Page at www.ada.gov.

For additional information, including the procedures for registering to comment at the hearings and for requesting special accommodations, click on the link below for the advance text of the Department’s Notice of Public Hearings.

  Hearing Notice: Notice of Public Hearings on ANPRMs

Yet another article from the amazing Dick Kaplan (Illinois)

Financing Long-Term Care after Health Care Reform

Richard L. Kaplan
University of Illinois College of Law
Journal of Retirement Planning, p. 9, July-August, 2010

Abstract:     
Among the many features of the 2010 health care legislation is a new entitlement program to fund long-term care called Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or CLASS. Beginning possibly as early as January 2011, employees of participating employers will be automatically enrolled in CLASS’s payroll-reduction plan and will become eligible for benefits after five years of continuous enrollment. These benefits will be calibrated by an enrollee’s degree of impairment and may be applied to the full range of long-term care services, from paying relatives for family-provided care and modifying a personal residence to funding adult day care, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes. These benefits are provided as long as the recipient qualifies for them, without any limit as to duration or total dollars expended. This article examines the CLASS program and compares its various features to currently available long-term care insurance policies, focusing on benefit eligibility, enrollment procedures, scope of benefits, ease of acquisition, program solvency, premium stability, and other programmatic features as well.

Accepted Paper Series

Call for papers: Southeastern Association of Law Schools

Call for Papers

2011 Annual Meeting, Southeastern Association of Law Schools

 

The Legal Response to Elder Abuse

 

Until recently, elder abuse and neglect were rarely mentioned in either the public discourse or the legal literature.  Yet elder mistreatment is a serious social problem – one that studies suggest affects at least 3% to 5% of persons over the age of sixty-five every year.   As policymakers seek to expand the public response to elder mistreatment, the civil justice and criminal justice systems are increasingly seen as having critical roles in that response.

 

This panel will feature new scholarship exploring the law's response to the problem of elder abuse and neglect.  Potential participants are encouraged to think normatively about how the law can and should respond to the problem, including by drawing on other areas of the law such as those pertaining to intimate partner violence, child abuse, and public health.  Participation from individuals not traditionally writing in this area, but who wish to draw connections between elder abuse and other areas of inquiry, is also encouraged.

Proposals are due by Friday, October 29, 2010, and should be submitted to Professor Nina Kohn at [email protected].   Full drafts are welcomed, but abstracts are sufficient at this point.  Full drafts will be expected by June 1, 2011.  The names of the participants and the titles of their papers will be included in the conference program and the individual papers will be posted online so that all interested parties may access and read them in advance of the conference.

AoA's October newsletter now online

Table of Contents

October Is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

AoA News

Population Data on Older Hispanic Adults Featured in AoA’s October Widget

Other HHS News

CMS Awards Grants to Six States to Combat Abuse and Neglect in Long Term Care Facilities

Information on Peripheral Arterial Disease Added to NI

SeniorHealth Website HHS Announces the Launch of HealthCare.gov on Facebook

HHS Releases $101 Million in Emergency Funding to States for Energy Assistance

Nationwide System Assist Doctors and Hospitals in Switching to Electronic Health Records Is Completed

HHS Awards $68 million in Grants to Support Community Living for Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities

Federal Funding Opportunities

Rural Health Network Development Grant Program

Second Opportunity for National Background Check Program Funding

More News
NCOA to Fund Benefits Enrollment Centers October Is Crime Prevention Month: Learn About Go Direct

October 16 Is World Food Day USDA Awards Grants to Expand Nutrition Aid for Low-Income Seniors

UN Report on “Current Status of the Social Situation, Wellbeing, Participation in
Development and Rights of Older Persons Worldwide”

Additional National Observances in October

Conferences

Access the full newsletter.

Experimenting with Teaching Estates and Trusts

via lawprofessors.typepad.com

WILLS, TRUSTS, & ESTATES LAW eJOURNAL

"Risk of Death" 

American Law and Economics Review, Forthcoming
U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 531

ARIEL PORAT, Tel Aviv University
Email: [email protected]
AVRAHAM D. TABBACH, Tel Aviv University
Email: [email protected]

When people face the risk of death, and when they ascribe no value to their wealth post-death, they over-invest in precautions in order to reduce that risk. There are two main reasons for such over-investment. First, people under risk of death discount their risk-reduction costs by the probability of death following precautions. Second, people facing the risk of death consider the consumption of their wealth when alive to be part of their benefit from risk-reduction. From a social perspective, people's wealth does not cease to exist after death. Therefore, discounting costs by the probability of death and taking into account the benefit of wealth-consumption are socially inefficient.

But more interestingly, even from the perspective of the individual facing the risk of death, the investment in risk reduction is only optimal as a second-best alternative. We show that if people could contract with "reverse insurers", who would inherit their assets upon death while paying them a sum of money during their lifetimes, such contracts would make the insured individuals better off and, more importantly, would align the private and the social incentives to invest in risk reduction. Furthermore, we show how the insights developed in the paper should significantly change the application of "Willingness to Pay" (WTP) as a criterion for valuing life. In particular, we suggest that the WTP be discounted by the ex-post probability of death and that the value of life be determined irrespective of wealth. Finally, we argue that the results derived from traditional tort models for both unilateral and bilateral accidents should be substantially revised when applied to fatal accidents. In particular, we show that in bilateral accidents, contrary to conventional wisdom, negligence and strict liability rules lead to the same inefficient equilibrium. We also demonstrate how liability rules could be modified to increase efficiency.

"Case Law Update" 

25th Annual Wills and Probate Institute, South Texas College of Law, 2010

GERRY W. BEYER, Texas Tech University School of Law
Email: [email protected]

This article discusses judicial developments relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters. The article covers approximately twenty-five cases that were reported from mid-2009 to mid-2010.

The discussion of each case concludes with a moral, i.e., the important lesson to be learned from the case. By recognizing situations that have led to time consuming and costly litigation in the past, estate planners can reduce the likelihood of the same situations arising with their clients.

Badass old people: rock on!

Via Mary WanderPolo:

10 Badass Old Folks

This Power Grid is dedicated to every elderly secondary character who tricked us into dismissing them at first, and then dropped our mouths open when they stood up and laid waste to a bunch of bad guys.

And we realized that the only difference between a young hero and and old hero is that the old hero has managed to survive to old age.

So why age gracefully when you can age like a boss?  You don't necessarily have to be ex-CIA, either. Check out these very badass dudes and dudettes.

DOJ posts revised, integrated Title II, III ADA regulations

On Friday, July 23, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder signed final regulations revising the Department’s ADA regulations, including its ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The official text was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010.

The revised regulations amend the Department’s Title II regulation, 28 C.F.R. Part 35, and the Title III regulation, 28 C.F.R. Part 36. Appendix A to each regulation includes a section-by-section analysis of the rule and responses to public comments on the proposed rule. Appendix B to the Title III regulation discusses major changes in the ADA Standards for Accessible Design and responds to public comments received on the proposed rules. The Department’s Final Regulatory Impact Analysis will be posted on this page as soon as it is available.

These final rules will take effect March 15, 2011. Compliance with the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design is permitted as of September 15, 2010, but not required until March 15, 2012. The Department has prepared fact sheets identifying the major changes in the rules.

Title II: Final Rule amending 28 CFR Part 35: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services (HTML) | (PDF)  (as published in the Federal Register September 15, 2010)

Revised Final Title II Regulation with integrated text. This revised title II regulation integrates the Department’s new regulatory provisions with the text of the existing title II regulation that was unchanged by the 2010 revisions.

Text of Revised Final Title II Regulation. This revised title II regulation integrates the Department’s new regulatory provisions with the text of the existing title II regulation that was unchanged by the 2010 revisions. The new language is in a bold typeface.

Title III: Final Rule amending 28 CFR Part 36: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities (HTML) | (PDF)  (as published in the Federal Register September 15, 2010)

Revised Final Title III Regulation with integrated text. This revised title II regulation integrates the Department’s new regulatory provisions with the text of the existing title II regulation that was unchanged by the 2010 revisions.

Text of Revised Final Title III Regulation. This revised title II regulation integrates the Department’s new regulatory provisions with the text of the existing title II regulation that was unchanged by the 2010 revisions. The new language is in a bold typeface.

 

Appendix B to Final Title III Regulation:

Appendix B: Analysis of the 2010 ADA Standards (HTML) | PDF format

 

Fact Sheets: 

Highlights of the Final Rule to Amend the Department of Justice’s Regulation Implementing Title II of the ADA

Highlights of the Final Rule to Amend the Department of Justice’s Regulation Implementing Title III of the ADA

Adoption of the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design

China's Communist Party elders call for an end to censorship

A group of 23 Communist Party elders in China has written a letter calling for an end to the country's restrictions on freedom of speech.  The letter says freedom of expression is promised in the Chinese constitution but not allowed in practice.  They want people to be able to freely express themselves on the internet and want more respect for journalists.  The call comes just days after the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. 
Mr. Liu was sent to prison for 11 years in 2009 for expressing his desire to see peaceful political change in China.  The letter's release also comes ahead of a key party meeting that is expected to promote future leaders and shape policy for the next few years.

The authors of the letter describe China's current censorship system as a scandal and an embarrassment.  The signatories describe the propaganda department as "invisible black hands".   The letter says: "They violate our constitution, often ordering by telephone that the works of such and such a person cannot be published, or that such and such an event cannot be reported in the media.  "The officials who make the call do not leave their names, and the secrecy of the agents is protected, but you must heed their phone instructions."  Many who signed the letter were once influential officials.  They include a former personal secretary to the revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, and a former editor of the People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper.  The letter, addressed to China's parliament, makes a number of proposals for change.

The letter's eight demands for change:

    * Dismantle system where media organisations are all tied to higher authorities
    * Respect journalists, accept their social status
    * Revoke ban on cross-province supervision by public opinion
    * Abolish cyber-police; control Web administrators' ability to delete/post items at will
    * Confirm citizens' right to know crimes and mistakes committed by ruling party
    * Launch pilot projects to support citizen-owned media organisations
    * Allow media and publications from Hong Kong and Macau to be openly distributed
    * Change the mission of propaganda authorities, from preventing the leak of information to facilitating its accurate and timely spread

Source/more at the BBC.

Open Enrollment for Medicare is just around the corner. At this time of year current or newly-eligible Medicare beneficiaries, including people with original Medicare, can review their current health or prescription drug plans, compare the plans to other options, and choose the plans that best meet their current needs. With the new health care law, there are new benefits available to people with Medicare, including lower prescription costs, wellness checkups and preventive care. The new law also provides better ways to protect beneficiaries from fraud, making Medicare stronger for all of us and for future generations.

AoA is sponsoring a Webinar on this year's open enrollment process and changes to Medicare resulting from the Affordable Care Act.  Join the panel members as they provide more details on these exciting new benefits so that you can help educate others during Open Enrollment.

The webinar will take place at 5:30pm EDT THURSDAY October 14 at http://www.HealthCare.gov/live.

National Resource Center on LGBT aging launch

In February 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a landmark grant to Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE)—in partnership with 10 organizations from around the country—to establish the country’s first and only technical assistance resource center aimed at improving the quality of services and supports offered to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults.

Tohday, they are proud to announce the launch of the National Resource Center on Aging:

http://www.lgbtagingcenter.org/

Assisted Living Consumers Alliance invites you to attend a meeting in Orlando

News from the Assisted Living Consumers Alliance:  ALCA will be meeting on the morning of October 21 during the annual conference of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (formerly NCCNHR).  We will be discussing recent ALCA activities and ALCA's policy initiatives for the coming year.  Everyone is welcome.

The conference is being held in Orlando, Florida.  More information about the conference is available here.

Borchard Center on Law and Aging announces 2010--11 Fellows

Announcing the

2010-2011 Borchard Foundation Law and Aging Fellows

The Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging affords one year for two law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging, the opportunity to pursue their research and professional interests. This year the Foundation was able to award three fellowships instead of the usual two.

1.  RACHEL FRAZIER – a 2010 Harvard University Law School graduate, who also received a Masters in Public Health from Harvard in May and is a 2004 graduate of Wentworth College in Washington state. Rachel spent 2004-2005 in the Americorps VISTA program developing a still in place pharmacy assistance program and worked during the summer of 2009 as the Herbert Semmel Elderlaw Fellow at AARP Litigation in DC. She was one of 25 graduate students at Harvard University to be awarded a full 2010 scholarship for academic achievement and leadership potential. Rachel will partner with the DC office of the National Senior Citizens Law Center to do policy research and advocacy related to reform of the appeals processes for non-disability appeals from denial of Supplemental Security Income applications and with Whitman Walker Clinic Legal Services in DC to provide legal representation to poor elderly persons seeking income and/or health public benefits.

2.   2.      PAUL BLACK- a 2010 Georgia State Law School (Atlanta) graduate, who also received a Masters in Education from Georgia State in 2005 and is a 2002 honors graduate in History from Princeton University. Paul taught high school economics and social studies from 2005-2007 in Atlanta before entering law school. A track athlete and coach and an Eagle Scout, Paul had a Public Interest Law Fellowship at the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline in summer 2009 and has been a legal extern with the Senior Citizens Law Project at Atlanta Legal Aid during 200-2010. His article on Reverse Mortgages and the Current Financial Crisis will be published in a peer reviewed national elderlaw journal this summer. Paul will partner with both the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline and Atlanta Legal Aid’s Senior Citizens Law Project to deliver legal services to poor elderly and also develop and implement a replicable model Legal Hotlines Client Outcome Study for the Georgia Legal Hotline to assess effectiveness of prior services and serve as basis for improvements in practice and procedures.

3.   STELLA KANG- a 2010 University of California, Berkeley School of Law graduate who received her BA with high honors in Russian Language and Literature from Smith College in 2001, Stella was in Russia in 2005-2006 working as a Fulbright Fellow on women’s human rights issues. Stella speaks Russian, Korean and Spanish and has extensive experience working with low income immigrants and refugees in the Bay Area and abroad. While in law school, Stella interned at the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach and the East Bay Community Law Center. Stella will return to Asian Pacific Legal Outreach for her fellowship, to develop, strengthen and implement a sustainable model for the provision of culturally competent legal services to Asian Pacific Islanders facing elder abuse.

 

 

 

NSCLC publishes guide to Martinez settlement

The Martinez lawsuit challenged the Social Security Administration’s policy interpreting provisions in the Social Security Act that came to be known as the “fleeing felon” provisions. The “fleeing felon” provisions make ineligible for benefits anyone who is 1) “fleeing to avoid prosecution” for a felony, 2) “fleeing to avoid ... custody or confinement after conviction” for a felony, or “violating a condition of probation or parole” for any offense. (Denials based on warrants for alleged violations of probation or parole conditions are not part of Martinez; see page 18 for more information.)  This NSCLC document provides guidance to advocates helping Martinez class members claim the full benefits they are due under the settlement.

In addition to abandoning the illegal policy, SSA has agreed to repay more than $700 million in benefitsthat were unlawfully withheld from 80,000 people whose benefits have been suspended or denied since January 1, 2007. People whose benefits were suspended or denied between 2000 and 2006 will be notified of the change in policy and given a chance to re-establish eligibility. All told, over 200,000 people will benefit from the settlement.
 
To assist advocates who are working with Martinez class members, NSCLC (co-lead counsel in the case) has created the advocate guide, "Understanding the Martinez Settlement." The guide provides background on the SSA policy and the litigation, summarizes the benefits of the settlement and relays practice tips to advocates.
 
NSCLC also hosts a listserv for advocates assisting Martinez class members. The listserv provides the latest information about the implementation of the settlement and a forum for discussing with other advocates strategies for serving class members. This listserv is for advocates only. Click here to join.

Read, "Understanding the Martinez Settlement".

Also available in large type.

Check out this webinar series sponsored by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Series Title:  Public Policy & Aging Report on Healthy Aging and the Environment

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) presents a distinguished panel of guest speakers to bring you a groundbreaking series of webinars on aging, environmental health, and disability. This series, which begins October 12, is sponsored by the John Merck Fund.

The series mirrors the contents of a thematic issue on healthy aging and the environment of the Public Policy & Aging Report of the Gerontological Society of America's http://www.geron.org/  policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society http://www.agingsociety.org/agingsociety/ . An electronic version of this publication will be made available for free to all webinar attendees.

To access additional information and register for any of the webinars below, please go to http://aaidd.org/ehi/content_3919.cfm?navID=306   of the AAIDD web site.

  Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging with Ted Schettler, Maria Valenti
  Tues Oct 12th from 2-3pm Eastern Time

  Built Environment with Kathy Sykes, Rodney Harrell, Regina Gray
  Tues Oct 19th from 2-3pm Eastern Time

  Psychosocial Environment with Danny George, Peter Whitehouse
  Tues Oct 26th from 2-3pm Eastern Time

  Chemical Environment with Maye Thompson, Marybeth Palmigiano
  Tues Nov 2nd from 2-3pm Eastern Time

  Food Environment with Michelle Gottlieb, Emma Sirois
  Tues Nov 9th from 2-3pm Eastern Time

Learn about health care reform the YooTunes way...

Kaiser Family Foundation has announced the availabilty of a new animated 9 minute short on their website, narrated by Cokie Roberts, explaining health care reform. Health Reform Hits Main Street, a new animated short video from the Kaiser Family Foundation, features the YouToons explaining the health reform law to an American public still confused by how it works. Have you seen it? The short movie has three major sections: explaining problems in the current health care system, short-term changes that will take place between now and 2014, and major provisions that will take effect in 2014. View it online and share it with colleagues, friends and family.  

Written and produced by the Foundation, the animated movie features narration by Cokie Roberts, ABC News and NPR news commentator and a member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and is part of Kaiser’s new Health Reform Source, an online gateway providing easy access to new and comprehensive resources on the health reform law.

Access the video here. 

Visit the Health Reform Source online at http://healthreform.kff.org for other new features and tools including an interactive timeline showing when health reform provisions take effect, all the latest polling data, short videos with Foundation experts answering specific questions about the law on a variety of health policy topics, links to other information resources, the latest headlines on health reform from Kaiser Health News, and FAQs about the new law.

Older volunteers provide 800% return on investment

Older adult volunteers can provide an 800% return on investment to nonprofits, says a new report released today by NCOA. The report, The Boomer Solution: Skilled Talent to Meet Nonprofit Needs, is the result of a three-year collaborative study of more than 60 nonprofits nationwide. 

The Boomer Solution outlines how nonprofits can best capitalize on the growing influx of boomer talent into the volunteer workforce to advance their missions in the community.

“With the number of older volunteers on the rise, there has never been a better time for nonprofits to leverage the power of older adults to help meet important social needs in our communities,” says Thomas Endres, vice president of Civic Engagement at NCOA. “This timely report provides new ideas and insights, brings best practices to the table, and demonstrates the value of this nonprofit capacity-building model.”

As part of the study, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, nonprofits developed and tested various models of integrating skilled older adult volunteers with nonprofit staff. Volunteers were placed in leadership roles and positions within nonprofit organizations that matched their area of expertise.

Using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and marketplace wage data, NCOA developed a return on investment measurement tool to compare the expense of recruiting, training, and maintaining skilled volunteers to the value of volunteers’ service.

Read the full report.