Speak Up - Speak Out - CARE for others
Crossroads of caregiving and advocacy are impossible to ignore
Hello KIRC fam!
Today, KIRC is sharing several upcoming caregiving events that fall into the category of advocacy, and we’re also offering a few articles I hope are ‘Food for Thought.’
Before we dive in, I’d like to say hello and WELCOME to our newest family members - so glad to have as part of our tribe!
And, a HUGE thank you to KIRC paid subscribers! I appreciate your support more than words. Keeping It REAL Caregiving is a reader-supported independent publication so your support is what allows me to keep moving forward. This is a one-woman effort to curate information and provide a niche pocket of caregiving resources and ‘Nuggets of Knowledge.’
Click the button below to upgrade to a paid subscription. And of course, always feel free to share articles throughout our archives with others who might benefit!
Okay - let’s dive in!
Protecting Medicaid from Cuts in Congress: Updates for Aging Advocates
From Justice in Aging
When: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PT
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET
With the House’s vote last month to pass a budget reconciliation bill, the fight to protect Medicaid has moved to the Senate. If enacted, H.R. 1 — the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — would be devastating for the health and well-being of low-income older adults. The legislation would make the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, while undermining Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and other programs older adults rely on to meet their basic needs.
This webinar, Protecting Medicaid from Cuts in Congress: Updates for Aging Advocates, will outline where the budget reconciliation bill stands and how the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and other health care programs would harm older adults. Participants will learn about the latest insights on effective advocacy strategies, data, and resources that advocates can use in their own states and communities.
For more background, see Justice in Aging’s resources on Medicaid Defense.
Who Should Participate: Advocates for older adults and other Medicaid and aging stakeholders.
The webinar will take place on June 17, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. PT/2:00 p.m. ET and will run for 60 minutes.
Register here
Journalists in Aging Fellowship
Gerontological Society of America
Application Deadline: Friday, July 18, 2025
The media have largely ignored these emerging stories, and most communities are poorly informed about the challenges and opportunities of the longevity revolution. Ageism is pervasive. For 15 years, the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program has fueled coverage of crucial and sometimes complex issues at a time when most news organizations have no resources to assign a reporter to cover aging.
This program's goals are to educate journalists about issues in aging, better allowing them to spread a new awareness to general audiences and ethnic or minoritized communities; and to disseminate accurate information about new scientific findings, policy debates, innovations, and evidence-based solutions.
For more information and to apply CLICK HERE.
*NOTE: GSA selected KIRC’s creator, Julia Yarbough, as a 2020 Fellow. Below are two of the video stories produced for this Fellowship project to raise awareness. Each aired on Action News Now in Northern California. While the statistics may have changed, the challenges facing families have not.
Senior Tsunami: The Aging of America
ZAMI NOBLA -
The National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging
As you may know, June is Pride Month, a time for celebration and reflection. It’s also a powerful opportunity to turn intention into impact.
In today’s climate, where funding sources are shrinking and community needs are growing, your support is more important than ever.
Imagine a Black lesbian elder — someone who helped pave the way for generations of LGBTQ+ folks — now facing social isolation, rising rent, or a medical co-pay she simply cannot afford. For too many, this is not imagination. It’s reality.
This June, ZAMI NOBLA is honored to participate in Give OUT Day, the only national giving day dedicated to LGBTQ+ nonprofits.
We’ve set an ambitious but deeply necessary goal:
🎯 $50,000 for our Black Lesbian Elder Emergency Fund, which provides:
Food and rent assistance
Utility payments
Medical co-pays and healthcare needs
Transportation and caregiving
Gardening and safe meeting spaces for connection and healing
Every single donation — even just $10 — brings the organizations closer to its goal and helps sustain the women who carried the movement before many had the words for their truth.
👉 Donate now via Give OUT Day:
https://www.giveoutday.org/organization/zaminobla
📲 Prefer another way to give?
Zelle: Send to 404-510-1660
Network for Good: https://zaminobla.networkforgood.com/
Mail: ZAMI NOBLA, P.O. Box 90986, Atlanta, GA 30364
🗣️ Please also share this message with your network — friends, colleagues, and family — and invite them to act in allyship.
For more information, visit www.zaminobla.org
Connecting the Dots: Then and Now
As you may know, Caring Across Communities, Inc. is the non-profit arm to Keeping It REAL Caregiving. It takes time and the vision is growing. But for now, some ‘Food for Thought.”
For many, it feels as if we are moving through an incredibly challenging and borderline dangerous time for freedom and democracy in our country.
Others may feel as if things are getting ‘back on track’ with the world regressing to a cultural and demographic landscape that makes some feel safe, happy, and perhaps more comfortable.
So, for the Caring Across Communities concept of ’Connecting the Dots’ I would like to share two recent articles which I hope you take the time to read, and find educational and enlightening.
The first is about how we are caring for each other in our world right now. I wonder daily - are we? Have we lost some of our humanity?
Having lived and worked in South Florida as a broadcast news journalist, I had the opportunity to see the current Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Alberto M. Carvalho, in action while he was Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Schools.
I Was Once Undocumented. Now I’m a Superintendent Speaking Out Against Trump’s Immigration Raids
Excerpt:
I am the leader of the second-largest public school system in the country. I am also a proud American—and once, I was an undocumented immigrant.
My journey to citizenship is not just a personal story; it is a story that deeply informs how I lead, how I teach, and how I serve the over 520,000 students who attend Los Angeles Unified schools. This country gave me the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to give back. I became an educator because I believe in the promise of public education. And I became a superintendent to protect it.
To read the full story, click here.
Now, the second story.
Do you know the name Rebecca Lee Crumpler?
If the answer is no, it is likely because very few of us (if any) were taught about this individual in our nation’s history.
Enjoy this piece from The Smithsonian Magazine.
The Nation’s First Black Female Doctor Blazed a Path for Women in Medicine. But She Was Left Out of the Story for Decades
Excerpt:
Born in 1831 in Christiana, Delaware, Crumpler was raised by an aunt in Pennsylvania who worked as a nurse and community healer. It was this early exposure to caregiving, she later wrote in A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts, that inspired her to pursue a life in medicine. Published in 1883, Crumpler’s book was part medical text, part memoir—an effort to share both clinical advice and her experience as a Black woman physician. “Having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to be in a position to relieve the sufferings of others,” Crumpler wrote.
Oops - this newsletter went a bit longer than planned. But, I hope you found something useful (or at least insightful) here.
Please share this KIRC publication with your friends, and if you not a paid subscriber, please consider supporting the effort!
Thank you again for being on this journey - it is more important now than ever before, to remain informed of changes impacting the aging field, our health, caregiving and advocacy.
Until next time~
Stay safe and practice situational awareness!
