Here’s a superb collection of ways to support Ageism Awareness Day from the American Society on Aging. As they point out, narrow views of aging and old vs. young framing are barriers to creating “a society that works for us all—once we get past ageism.” Want more suggestions? “Don’t just talk about it, BE about it!” urges anti-ageism champion Janine Vanderburg.

This year I’m asking people in ageland to reflect on whether their actions and organizations are actually anti-ageist. The Old School Hub has wrestled with that question for almost a decade now, because we focus on explicitly addressing ageism.

A recent query from a national organization challenged us to clarify our criteria. The organization described their nearly two million participants as “anti-ageist in spirit, even if they aren’t holding rally signs.” Seeking to be added to Old School’s resource bank, they asked: “Can an organization be anti-ageist even if it doesn’t explicitly use that term?”

We reframed the question more broadly: “Can an organization support age equity without committing explicitly to that mission?”  We thought hard. Here’s our answer: “As we see it, supporting age equity means foregrounding the need to educate people about ageism and to confront it in some way. Otherwise the organization’s position is neutral, not anti-ageist. That allows the status quo, which is inequitable, to persist.”

I’m delighted to report that the organization decided to collaborate with Old School on ways to respond to our challenge. Would you or your organization like to do the same? Tell me more.