HOW TO BECOME A CHAPTER OF TheRadicalAgeMovement CONFRONTING AGEISM Confronting ageism isn t just a matter of personal well-being. It s a social justice and human rights issue! 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443, www.radicalagemovement.org
TheRadicalAgeMovement Table of Contents Welcome! 3 Our Mission Vision & Purpose Becoming a RAM Chapter Committing to RA Social Action Developing Consciousness-Raising in Your Group Individual Chapter Registration 4 5 7 9 10 Organization Chapter Registration 11 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443 www.radicalagemovement.org 2
Welcome We are pleased that you are interested in becoming a RadicalAgeMovement chapter in your community. This booklet has been designed to help you in doing just that! Given the present political tensions in our country, such work could not be more important. We have included our mission statement, value and purpose: if they align with your thinking and desire for change, then becoming a RA chapter is right for you, your friends, your organization and other community members. As a movement, we are not wedded to one type of chapter. One chapter has formed inside an activist senior group long established on the Lower East Side of New York. Another began among two friends in a city in upstate New York. We hope to expand to be part of well-established community centers and senior centers across New York State, the region, and our nation. What matters is not the form of your group but your commitment to the RAM mission and purpose, combined with a willingness to confront ageism in all its forms. We have included two of the most powerful ways to build our movement: (a) through social action to combat age injustice; and (b) holding consciousness-raising groups to confront the ageism both in society and embedded within ourselves. 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443 www.radicalagemovement.org 3
TheRadicalAgeMovement MISSION STATEMENT TheRadicalAgeMovement is a national grassroots effort that challenges traditional notions of aging. We are building an inter-generational movement dedicated to confronting and eradicating age discrimination and its impact on older adults in all areas of cultural, professional, and community life. TheRadicalAgeMovement VISION AND PURPOSE People are living longer, and yet we as a society don t know how to make the best use of these extra years. And, because of our fears and negative stereotypes about aging, we re not just ignoring the potential value we re often making things worse. We need a new social vision of age that will inspire and support people to grow and participate actively throughout their entire lives. No age-segregation or pitting generation against generation we want a society that works for us all. We can t leave it to experts to tell us how to age well or successfully or to an aging industrial complex that sees older adults as a dependent group or growing market of consumers. It s up to us. It s time for TheRadicalAgeMovement, a grassroots nationwide effort that challenges traditional notions of ageing and introduces new ideas for building co-creative and interdependent communities. Working together, we can enact a vision with a powerful set of purposes: Challenge ageism in ourselves, social practices, policies, and institutions; Create new language and models that embrace the full life journey Create new paradigms in society so that adults can participate fully consistent with their capabilities and ambitions at all stages of life; Celebrate the contributions of older adults toward innovating, changing and repairing the world; Create a more compassionate and interdependent society that supports the well-being of people of all ages; Inspire and help develop cross-generational communities where people of all ages enjoy the gifts and capacities they have to offer; Bring dying and death out of the closet. 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443, www.radicalagemovement.org 4
BECOMING A RadicalAgeMovement CHAPTER We are excited that you and your friends and colleagues are considering developing a chapter of TheRadicalAgeMovement. To become a chapter included on our web page requires the following steps: 1. You and your members agree with the mission and purpose of TheRadicalAgeMovement as outlined below. 2. As a movement chapter, you agree that you support TheRadicalAgeMovement, Inc. [RAM] as a non-profit, but will not engage in fund-raising or solicitation of any kind in the name of RAM. 3. Each chapter will determine the type of activities it will engage in, social action, including consciousness-raising groups, and information sessions, as long as they are consistent with the RAM mission and purpose. 4. While we as individuals are active in electoral campaigns, RAM and its chapters will not engage as a group in the endorsement of candidates but instead focus on resisting ageist legislation at the city, state, and federal levels. We also will support positive age justice initiatives as well. That said, we do encourage individual members to be active in the political process as he or she chooses. 5. As a RAM chapter you will be encouraged to keep the central office in New York City informed of your activities and events. We will post such activities on our web page and Facebook page as we receive them. 6. Your chapter leadership will provide your steering committee emails and addresses for on-going correspondence, feedback, and communication. 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443, www.radicalagemovement.org 5
7. RAM-NYC will inform all chapters of demonstrations, marches, legislative hearings, and other social action-based activities, and invite every chapter to attend New York Citybased actions under our banner. 8. An annual fee of $50.00 ($250 for organizations) is requested to register your group and for other modest administrative costs. Additionally: RAM-NYC will place your affiliation and appropriate contact information on our web page. All RAM events, including yours, will be posted both on the web page and will be sent directly to your leadership group via email. 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443, www.radicalagemovement.org 6
COMMITTING TO SOCIAL ACTION AGAINST AGE INJUSTICE It is clear that the Trump Administration, as well as many state governments, are determined to drastically alter our government s basic social contract with all Americans in need. There are few among us not at risk of a less secure, more diminished, and frightening life for ourselves, our loved ones, and our fellow citizens as well as others seeking to live a decent and peaceful life. It is therefore a necessity that every Radical Ager become active both in resistance to his policies and in developing an alternative vision for a better, safer and more just world. As a Radical Age chapter, you are invited to create RAM social action campaigns that will be part of the larger social movements developing among progressive groups to counter the Trump Agenda. Those campaigns will include but not be limited to active resistance efforts to: Stop any changes in Medicare and Medicaid that would diminish the health of older Americans (as well as many others); Cuts, freezes, and alterations to Social Security; Cuts of any kind in Title XX funds > In New York, this includes Governor Cuomo s call to reallocate these funds, necessitating the closing of 65 senor centers in NYC; Alterations to the Affordable Care Act resulting in loss of coverage; 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 917-439-6083, www.radicalagemovement.org 7
Tax cuts for wealthier Americans, resulting in lost revenue for matching state and city programs for older and younger Americans > In New York City, this incudes home care programs with waiting lists for hundreds of home-bound older, frail New Yorkers. Call out the anti-aging cosmetic industrial complex. Challenging the media for ageist advertising and ageist reporting, Thwarting ageism in the workforce. Our voice is needed so that legislators, cultural leaders and the media come to recognize that the purposeful invisibility and marginalization of older Americans must stop, just as it must for people of color, women, the LGBT community and, yes, poor and working class white Americans as well. As you create and join such actions, keep us informed. All of our combined activity will be strengthened by our continued use of our web page, e-blasts, and Facebook. We look forward to you being a vital part of building TheRadicalAgeMovement together in the months and years ahead. 1East 53 rd Street, 8 th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443 www.radicalagemovement.org 8
CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING GROUPS Using lessons from the Women s Movement, these CR groups have sparked highly insightful conversations and a commitment to change that is the basis for any strong social movement. Historically, when prejudice and discrimination go unchallenged, they stop being identified as oppression and become normal or natural. Consciousnessraising exposes these ways of thinking as social constructs that we can change. Consciousness-raising is the first step in a process of social change that involves conversation, collaboration, activism, art, advocacy, and eventually legislation. You can download The RAM Consciousness-Raising guide from our website www.radicalagemovement.org to help you explore how to use this powerful teambuilding tool with your fellow Radical Agers. 1East 53rd Street, 8th Fl., NYC, NY 10022, confrontingageism@gmail.com, 646-630-4443, www.radicalagemovement.org 9
INDIVIDUAL CHAPTER APPLICATION IF YOU ACCEPT THE MISSION, VISION AND PURPOSE, TheRadicalAgeMovement IS FOR YOU! Please fill out the following information. Name: Address: Phone: Email: How would you like your chapter to be listed on our website? I agree with TheRadicalAgeMovement mission, vision, and purpose as stated above. Signature: Please send this completed and signed form along with your check for $50.00 to: TheRadicalAgeMovement One East 53 rd Street, 8 th Floor New York, NY 10022 For Additional Information, please contact us at confrontingageism@gmail.com or 646-630-4443 10
ORGANIZATION CHAPTER APPLICATION IF YOU ACCEPT THE MISSION, VISION AND PURPOSE, TheRadicalAgeMovement IS FOR YOU! Please fill out the following information. Organization: Contact Person: Address: Email: Phone: How would you like your chapter to be listed on our website? I agree with TheRadicalAgeMovement mission, vision, and purpose as stated above. Signature: Please send this completed and signed form along with your check for $250.00 to: TheRadicalAgeMovement One East 53 rd Street, 8 th Floor New York, NY 10022 11