The Diverse Elders Coalition (DEC) is an advocacy and education coalition made up of five national organizations representing millions of elders of color and LGBT elders around the country. The DEC focuses on strengthening policies and programs to enhance the health and well-being of diverse elders, educating and connecting our older people and their loved ones to key policy debates on aging, and increasing public support for issues that affect our communities. The coalition includes: the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, the National Hispanic Council on Aging, the National Indian Council on Aging, Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.
Since its founding in 2010, the DEC has garnered considerable attention nationwide and moved key policy wins at the federal level. In its first years, the coalition has focused on key areas of shared interest, including strengthening Social Security; increasing funding for programs aimed at more marginalized elders (largely through health care reform implementation); and ensuring that the Older Americans Act (OAA), through reauthorization, directs more of its sizable resources to marginalized older adults around the country. In the summer of 2012, the DEC released a landmark report on the economic security issues facing our communities, as well as a news blog that features regular commentaries on diverse elder issues. In the years ahead, the coalition is poised to substantially increase its visibility and reach, and to achieve key policy improvements.
The Diverse Elders Coalition is searching for a full-time National Coordinator to manage the advocacy and education strategies and priorities of the coalition, as well as to build online awareness of the many issues facing elders of color and LGBT elders. The national coordinator will largely focus on two areas: coordinating joint policy advocacy (at the federal and state levels) and overseeing strategic communications, largely through online and social media. The national coordinator will work very closely with members of the Diverse Elders Coalition, including the Coalition’s Core Working Group, facilitating regular communications among the coalition’s members to arrive at decisions and concrete results. This position will focus exclusively on the work of o the Diverse Elders Coalition; it will be supervised by one member of the coalition.