M Center of Excellence

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated interest in the health, wealth, work, and social engagement of older adults. Goals have been reexamined and challenges and inequities highlighted. With a rapidly aging population, work to improve the retirement years of older Americans is more crucial than ever. Our objective is to identify gaps and opportunities for action and to help individuals and institutions realize the upsides and mitigate the risks of longer lives. While the financial services industry, the healthcare sector, and policymakers have focused significant efforts on preparation for the retirement years, they have largely worked within their own silos. The Project will provide a forum and platform for cross-sector collaboration among these and other stakeholders in developing tools, programs, recommendations, and innovative solutions to maximize the possibilities and potential of 21st Century retirement.

Project Title: Financial Education and Longevity in the Black Community. Focus: Black women are the gatekeepers for families and communities. Black women are the primary or co-breadwinner for 68% of Black households, make up 66% of Black baccalaureate degree holders, and are the only racial or ethnic group with more business ownership than their male peers. The American College Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality's financial education programs will empower Black women with the knowledge and resources to help narrow the wealth gap, promote generational financial literacy and lead to longer and more vibrant lives. Plan: Two certificate options will be offered. Tier one will be a participant certificate, focused on individual education and knowledge, and a tier two certificate, focused on group financial education delivery.

Lifetime Circumstances Predicting Exceptional Longevity - A topic of interest to the M Center is extreme longevity - or survival to very old ages. We propose to examine the lifetime characteristics of people who survive to be centenarians. While others have looked at the genetic factors linked to very old survival, we think that social factors will have higher explanatory power and should be considered in addition to, or while accounting for, genetic differences. We believe that looking at exceptional survivors will offer clues as to why many people survive longer than average, not just why a few survive to very old age. These insights will be useful to individual and societal planning for future longevity. We will convene a group of scholars at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology to select and examine predictors of exceptional survival, one domain and one topic at a time. For example, we will carefully consider and study the effect of various factors on how long one lives.

The focus: Co-generational service bringing the distinctive and complementary talents of older and younger people together in ways that help solve important social problems, forge meaningful intergenerational bonds, bridge differences and enhance understanding between the generations. The problem: The time for this work is upon us. We are becoming a much more multigenerational society, but due to widespread age segregation and other barriers, are ill-prepared for both making the most of longer lives and the prospect of five generations living and working together. Ageism is widespread. A proposed solution: Service programs are one way to address this problem. Some organizations are already mobilizing younger people to serve older ones, while others are mobilizing older individuals to serve young ones. We want to bring older and younger people together to serve jointly, side by side, helping others while strengthening the communities where they serve and the nation as a whole.

WorkingNation is looking for additional partners to fund short documentaries for their newest series, WorkingForward. In this case the topic we are addressing is older workers, purpose in life, and retirement preparation. In this particular episode, WorkingNation will take an investigative look at the experiences of older workers and industry leaders to explore what the far-reaching socio-economic ramifications will be if the growing population of aging Americans is not prepared to stay in the workforce later in life. In addition to exploring the nature and consequences of this demographic shift, WorkingNation will highlight programs, employers, and industry leaders that are working to build strong solutions for pathways forward.