May is Older Americans Month, an observance to acknowledge the perennial contributions of older adults in our nation. This year’s theme is “Blaze a Trail” to highlight those elder Americans advocating for themselves, their peers, and their communities. It’s a great opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the wonderful seniors you’re serving, and show how active and engaged they remain as valued members of our society paving the way for younger generations.

Content Tips for Any Senior Care Company:

• Interview or profile an older adult who is an awesome example of a good citizen, whether as a volunteer, aging advocate, member of our military, youth mentor, or in another role making a positive contribution to our society.

• Showcase older adults who are redefining aging, either by their lifestyle, new careers, hobbies, or other ways they’re inspirational “trailblazers”.

• Older Americans Month is an excellent time to highlight how you’re helping older adults overcome ageism and how your organization honors and cherishes them. Talk about the ways that the mission or focus of your senior care business is aligned with the key messages of the campaign: how you’re advocating for older adults, how you’re helping them remain active and engaged in their communities, how your helping them overcome stereotypes about what it means to be old.

• Consider involving the seniors you serve in a “Blaze a Trail” story competition. This can generate articles with awe-inspiring personal stories, and you could honor winners with special recognition and prizes (such as gift cards).

• This is also an opportunity to raise awareness about government legislation and services supporting seniors’ health and well being, or encouraging their involvement in civic programs, such as Senior Corps or the Older Americans Act.

Content Tips for Senior Living Communities:

• Are there trail blazing seniors living in your community? This is great opportunity to showcase their lives and contributions to society. You could even do social shares one a day or once a week that showcase these super seniors.

• Do you have unique activities at your senior living community that ‘blaze a trail’ or redefine aging, such as Juniper Communities’ planned trip taking a group of older adults to Burning Man 2016 or senior living communities hosting knitting groups for social good? Place extra emphasis on those programs this month.

Content Tips for Home Care Agencies:

• Does your home care agency support a trail-blazing senior? Ask if he or she be willing to share about their story for an article on your blog or a photo/text blurb share on your social profiles.

• Does your home care agency serve seniors living at a senior living community that helps them redefine aging, or participate in community volunteer opportunities, or otherwise keep them active and engaged? Consider blogging about those programs and how they’re making a difference for the seniors you serve.

Caring Resources to Support this Spark:

• Older Americans Act Renewed — this law funds key services for our nation’s seniors

• Rosalynn Carter: First Lady of Caregiving – how the Rosalynn Carter Institute is helping caregivers

Additional Resources to Support this Spark:

• Older Americans Month 2016 — Presidential Proclamation

• Growing Bolder — profiles of people whose stories rebrand aging

• Senior Corps — programs that connect seniors to organizations needing volunteers; volunteers receive guidance and training to make a contribution suited to their talents, interests and availability)

• Humans of New York — while not limited to older adults, this blog does often include their stories in its daily glimpse into the lives of strangers in NYC, such as an elder activist still protesting about social concerns

Content Sparks are part of Caring.com’s Content Made Simple program. See all of the Content Sparks.