Our Approach
The awB Pillars
Aging While Black (awB) is a transformative movement dedicated to improving the aging experience for Black elders through three pillars: Recalibrate the Village, Embrace Innovation, and Lean into Sankofa. These pillars address the unique opportunities and challenges Black elders face through community empowerment, technological integration, and cultural preservation.
Recalibrate the Village
Embrace Rapid Change
Lean Into Sankofa
Our Approach
Our approach to this work is unique. We aim to transform systems, amplify voices and build equity in the aging, both within the Black community and beyond.
We do this horizontally and vertically
The horizontal approach establishes connections nationwide, focusing on critical areas such as dementia, caregiving, and advanced care planning. We create a platform to share best practices with our growing community, collaborate with experts and professionals, and leverage resources for greater impact. We facilitate five horizontals with practitioners from across the country.Â
awB Horizontals
awB Horizontals are national communities of practice that turn our worldview into usable guidance for the field. They bring together elders, practitioners, researchers, and institutional leaders who are working on the front lines of Black aging.
Each Horizontal is anchored in a core dimension of equitable aging and asks a simple question: What would it look like to do this work in a way that truly centers Black elders?
Through convenings, shared tools, and ongoing learning, Horizontals help participants:
- Name the patterns and harms Black elders are experiencing in a given domain.
- Surface practices that are working in communities and translate them into clear guidance.
- Build alignment so organizations, funders, and systems actors can move with greater clarity and accountability.
Together, the Horizontals function as a backbone for the Aging While Black field: they clarify language, sharpen practice, and ensure that what we learn in one place can strengthen work everywhere.
If you are advancing work that touches Black elders, whether through programs, research, organizing, or systems change, we invite you to plug into an awB Horizontal and help shape the practices and standards that will guide this field.
Caregiving
Economic Security
Policy
Wellness & Social Connectedness
awB Verticals
Aging While Black Verticals are place-based initiatives where Black elders, community partners, and institutions work together to reshape how aging shows up in daily life.
In cities like Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, and Denver, we bring Black elders together with grassroots leaders, service providers, and systems partners to co‑create concrete shifts in policy, programs, and resource flows.
Each Vertical is grounded in local history, culture, and leadership. We listen to what Black elders say they need to age with dignity, safety, and joy, then build tables where those priorities can guide real decisions. Over time, these sites become living examples of what equitable aging for Black communities can look like—and models that can be adapted in other places.
Across our Verticals, we:
- Lift up Black elders as truth‑tellers, designers, and decision‑makers in their own communities.
- Align local partners around shared goals for economic security, caregiving, social connection, and wellness.
- Test and refine solutions—policy changes, program designs, funding strategies—that can be scaled across the broader Aging While Black movement.
If you’re interested in joining a vertical or bringing an Aging While Black Vertical to your community, we’d love to be in conversation. Email info@agingwhileblack.co.
Denver
Los Angeles
Bay Area
