Our Projects

FORUMS

Since 2002, Albany Guardian Society has produced or co-produced more than 60 community forums on aging-related topics.  Our forums have focused on aging-prepared communities, housing for a lifetime, lifelong learning at the library, aging and the environment, and ethnic and cultural considerations of caregiving.  More recently, we have hosted forums that dealt with planning and zoning initiatives, senior cohousing, senior ministries, and fall prevention awareness.  These events have allowed us to serve our community by convening individuals and organizations that are interested in improving services to seniors. 

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Albany Guardian Society has successfully partnered with WMHT Educational Telecommunications resulting in the production of IT’S AN AGE THING!, a 13-part television series devoted to the topic of aging and how seniors successfully confront common matters of concern.

Hosted by Susan Stamberg, one of the original on-air personalities at National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, the series captures seniors on location throughout New York State.  Taping from Buffalo to Manhattan, the production provided compelling and sometimes humorous insight into how many seniors successfully deal with issues around aging.  Whether it’s the concept of continuing to work after 65 or learning how to manage after the loss of a spouse, each episode provides the viewer with plenty to contemplate.

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Following the success of It’s An Age Thing, Albany Guardian Society again partnered with WMHT Educational Telecommunications in 2007 to produce It’s An Age Thing: Our Communities.  This 13-part television series was taped in counties in an around the Capital District and each episode offered viewers examples of how individuals and organizations are making their communities better places to live regardless of age. 

This local production was hosted by Mary Beth Wenger from WRGB.  Production support was once again provided by Cohoes Savings Foundation.  Sharon Wolin from Sharon Wolin Productions, served as director and producer while Mary Ann Potter, Vice President of Television Programming at WMHT, and Richard Iannello, Executive Director at Albany Guardian Society, teamed up once again as co-executive producers. 

Viewers learned about programs such as the S.T.A.R.S. Intergenerational Program in Ravena, Capital District Community Gardens, and the Town of Bethlehem transportation program.  One episode highlighted the wonderful volunteer efforts of seniors who have been working tirelessly on the U.S.S. Slater, a destroyer escort docked in the Hudson River in Albany, New York.  Care teams, age-related projects at RPI, and the Veggie Mobile provided viewers insight into the aging-related activities that are benefiting communities throughout the Capital Region. 

It’s An Age Thing: Our Communities: Caring for Your Parents

In April 2008, Albany Guardian Society teamed up again with WMHT to produce It’s An Age Thing: Our Communities: Caring for Your Parents.  This single episode was developed as a local production to complement the airing of Caring for Your Parents a PBS show, produced by WGBH in Boston. 

In April 2008, Albany Guardian Society teamed up again with WMHT to produce It’s An Age Thing: Our Communities: Caring for Your Parents.  This single episode was developed as a local production to complement the airing of Caring for Your Parents, a PBS show produced by WGBH in Boston. 

Once again, Sharon Wolin, from Sharon Wolin Productions, served as director and producer, while Richard Iannello from Albany Guardian Society and Mary Ann Potter from WMHT served as executive producers.  Mary Ann was also on-air host for this episode of It’s An Age Thing that highlighted the challenges of caregiving activities. 

This show originally intended to showcase three local families and how they dealt with the daily activities of caregiving.  In mid-production, one of the seniors we expected to tape became ill, but rather than eliminate the segment, we used the incident as a real-time example of how caregiving for an elderly parent can lead a family down an unanticipated path. 

The episode aired multiple times on WMHT and was part of a month-long effort by aging services providers throughout the Capital Region to highlight caregiving through community forums, presentations, and a day-long event at Hudson Valley Community College titled “Tools for Caregivers: Resources You Can Use When a Senior Relies on You.”   As part of this month-long effort to focus on the topic of caregiving, Albany Guardian Society published a special issue of its magazine, Capital Commons Quarterly: The Dynamics of Aging and Our Communities, that provided readers with a number of informative articles on this topic.

Empowering Communities for Successful Aging

In 2008, Albany Guardian Society worked with the New York State Office for the Aging, the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, and AARP to develop a statewide program that featured presentations on how the New York State Office for the Aging, aging services providers, civic leaders, and individual citizens are taking action to address the needs of our rapidly increasing older population.

In 2008, Albany Guardian Society worked with the New York State Office for the Aging, the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, and AARP to develop a statewide program that featured presentations on how the New York State Office for the Aging, aging services providers, civic leaders, and individual citizens are taking action to address the needs of our rapidly increasing older population.

For two days in November 2008, attendees heard fifty presentations from a variety of individuals and agencies, all highlighting how communities can be empowered to act now in an effort to develop and improve services to help seniors.