New Jersey’s First Service and Advocacy for GLBT Elders Program Has Launched

Christina Dore June 12, 2011 No Comments

by Christina Dore (Out Impact on Facebook, Out Impact on Twitter)

Respect your elders.

That’s a phrase you hear often, yet at times, it is often not practiced. In Jersey City, New Jersey, the 501 (c)3 Hudson Pride Connections Center (Facebook) recently launched the state’s very first Service and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) Program for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender senior citizens.

The purpose of SAGE is to give LGBT seniors the much needed and deserved social, recreational, educational and support services. For their May 19th launch at Hudson Pride Connections Center, SAGE offered an evening of bingo, a dance party, swing dance lessons and more. Director of Health and Human Services of Hudson County Carol Wilson also spoke of the importance of offering these particular services to senior citizens.

“The opportunity of being a SAGE affiliate will help guarantee that we will build our capacity to deliver high quality programs to GLBT elders in the Hudson County area,” said Hudson Pride Connections Center’s Executive Director Nancy Caamaño in a press release.“The funding we received from the Hudson County Department of Community Development to launch this program shows us SAGE will provide GLBT seniors with a safe place to socialize, learn more important health issues, receive information about ensuring their financial well-being, and to connect with other GLBT seniors. Educational workshops and trainings to service providers about the needs to GLBT seniors will be offered, along with how to provide appropriate and sensitive services to them.

“I am so excited to welcome our new affiliates to SAGE, and to see SAGE’s work expanding into regions where we have not previously had a presence,” said SAGE Executive Director Michael Adams in a press release. “The continuing growth of SAGENet shows that communities across the country are turning an increased awareness of GLBT aging issues into action.”

Hudson Pride’s SAGE program will provide GLBT seniors with a safe space to socialize, learn about important health issues, receive information about ensuring their financial well-being, and to connect with other GLBT seniors. SAGE will also offer educational workshops and trainings to service providers about the needs of GLBT seniors and how to provide appropriate and sensitive services to them.

For more information on SAGE, Hudson Pride Connections Center and the other services they offer, visit www.hudsonpride.org.

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Christina Dore

Christina Dore graduated with a BFA in Creative Writing and a Certificate in Professional Writing at UNCW in 2008. She presently writes for encore Magazine, Performer Magazine and has written for The Beat Magazine in 2010. She is also assistant manager, head bartender and blog/Facebook maintainer for The Juggling Gypsy Entertainment Parlor. Projects and organizations she has been/is involved in include Art Soup, PRIDE/Allies, Food Not Bombs, Be Yr Own Hero, etc. Her interests include writing, improving literacy, social issues, activism, community building, radical mental health, planning fun events and promoting the arts, locally or globally.