Governance and Leadership
Leaders play a key role in creating an organizational culture and organizational practices that support the inclusion of people of all ages and all cognitive and physical abilities. This requires leaders to have knowledge and awareness of what makes an organization age and ability inclusive and what the barriers to age and ability inclusion may be. While leaders alone cannot make the changes needed to ensure an organization is fully inclusive, they are key to starting and maintaining the conversations and decision making that results in progress towards this goal.
Principles of An Inclusive Approach:
- Proactively counteracting ageism and ableism inside our organization
- Proactively counteracting ageism and ableism outside our organization
- Taking an adaptive and transformational approach that changes people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties
To assist with scoring and responding to the assessment, you can print out the Organizational Assessment Form and follow along.
For each statement, respond with: Fully Met, Partially Met, Not Met, Don’t Know, or Not Applicable (NA). Also take a moment to write down for each statement the things that you can improve, and the good things that you can build on.
Domain B Assessment
B1. At least one board member of our organization has expertise in ageism, ableism, and the intersectionality of identities.
B2. Our organization’s vision and mission reflect the core principles of age and ability inclusion and states our commitment to the principles of an inclusive approach.
B3. Our organization’s strategic plan reflects the core principles of age and ability inclusion and states our commitment to the principles of an inclusive approach.
B4. Our organization’s leaders discuss age and ability inclusion in internal meetings and guide change efforts for addressing ageism and ableism within the organization, including convening teams, projects, and committees to lead changes.
B5. Our organization’s leaders discuss age and ability inclusion in external meetings and public forums and guide change efforts for addressing ageism and ableism outside the organization, including convening cross-organizational teams, projects, and committees to lead changes.
B6. Our organization’s leaders actively engage all stakeholders (including residents, family members, and staff) concerning how age and ability inclusion is reflected in policies and practices. Examples include:
- Residents, family members, and staff are included in decision-making processes (through focus groups, surveys and other means)
- Residents, family members, and/or staff serve on board of directors or other governing bodies
- Our organization has established a set of community norms that is shared with staff members, residents/tenants, and family members. These norms describe acceptable and unacceptable behaviors with regard to age and ability inclusion
B7. Our organization reviews its policies, procedures, and practices regularly to identify potential barriers to age and ability inclusion.
B8. Our organization makes and records changes to its policies, procedures, and practices as a result of its regular reviews of age and ability inclusion.
B9. Our organization’s leaders/managers/department heads are working to reduce the segregation of residents based on their physical and/or cognitive abilities.