Black Lives Matter.

June 5, 2020

A Note From the TimeSlips Team

The TimeSlips mission is to bring meaning and purpose to the lives of elders through creative engagement. Our organization aims to bring this mission to fruition through systemic change that places creativity at the center of care for older adults — and especially older adults living with dementia.

But TimeSlips cannot make systemic change unless we acknowledge the roots of those systems. The brutal murder of George Floyd makes plain, once again, that American infrastructure of every kind is built on a foundation of racism.

None of this is new.

We know that the American healthcare system was built by white people, for white people. We know that the arts and culture sector of the United States continually silences and excludes Black artists.

And every day in our work we see the direct, negative health impacts of these systems.

The question, now and always, is, “What are we going to do about it?”

TimeSlips is committed to supporting our staff and board in anti-racism work, with the first of this work to begin in earnest in 2020. Our aim is that we can one day become an anti-racist, multicultural institution.

We commit to use this piece by The Century Foundation, which offers a blueprint for the kind of healthcare reform that will benefit Black Americans and, by extension, all Americans.

And we recognize the importance of young Black voices and organizers who have a vision for what the future of elder care can be.

At TimeSlips our work is predicated on asking what we call Beautiful Questions, questions with open-ended answers. We encourage you all to consider what kind of open-ended, beautiful question you can ask yourself and your community right now in response to this moment. We hope you will share your questions with us.

There is so much work to do across the sectors in which TimeSlips does its work. TimeSlips encourages our extended community to not let the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others fade. We are linking below to resources that we hope you find useful in this work.

Helpful Resources in the Field:

The Diverse Elders Coalition advocates for policies and programs that improve aging in our communities as racially and ethnically diverse people; American Indians and Alaska Natives; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender people.

Justice in Aging is a national non-profit legal advocacy organization that fights senior poverty through law. They have worked since 1972 for access to affordable health care and economic security for older adults with limited resources, focusing especially on populations that have traditionally lacked legal protection such as women, people of color, LGBT individuals, and people with limited English proficiency.

The National Caucus & Center on Black Aging, Inc. has helped protect and improve the quality of life for elderly populations, making certain that legislators, policy makers, philanthropists, advocacy groups, service organizations, thought leaders and the public at-large include minority seniors in their programs, policy- and law-making, and giving.

Image Credit: @CardsByDé shared on @Artists4LongtermCare

Black stories matter.
Black lives matter.