With the heart of an organizer, Jane Paccione leads Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio, also known as SALSA, for the San Antonio Area Foundation. Created to increase leadership, collaboration, and funding to support aging in the 7th largest city in the United States, SALSA is 100+ people and nearly 50 organizations working in unison.
Keeping a diverse network of organizations on the same page during a global public health crisis took a special kind of leadership. When the pandemic threatened the effort — with communities locked down and older adults socially isolated — Jane found a way to build a bigger movement. As she says, “reframing aging is the tomato in our SALSA!”
Jane worked with the National Center to Reframe Aging to make San Antonio the first community in the United States to host the online Core Elements to Reframe Aging training in the summer of 2020. She knew that training 18 local leaders as framers would be just the beginning. In her role as Managing Director of Collective Impact at SALSA, Jane was uniquely positioned to network, facilitate, and encourage her peers to move into action. Over the next several months, she facilitated virtual sessions for the newly trained to practice their skills, shared resources via an online platform, and fostered teamwork — sending people out two by two to build the movement and a new conversation about aging.
Now in 2024, SALSA is seeing the payoff. Across the city and sectors, people from various government agencies, private businesses, and non-profit enterprises are joining the movement, also referred to as “getting on the caravan.” They are joining because it aligns with the work they are already doing to: (1) prevent elder abuse, (2) advance age-friendly communities, and (3) help people to age in place.
One San Antonio business leader recently told Jane, “I changed all my marketing materials after your presentation.” This owner of a care management company was gearing up for a rebranding project for her business and was in the right place at the right time to hear Jane’s presentation. As a result, the business owner changed her collateral materials, the company’s website, and how she talks about services with older adults.
Lisa Senteno is a trained facilitator and leveraged her role within Texas Adult Protective Services to promote a reframed proclamation recognizing June as World Elder Abuse Awareness Month. Supported and signed by judges, mayors, and other leaders across Texas, it affirms that “as we age, we build momentum by accumulating knowledge, experience, insight, and wisdom” and “elder abuse is everyone’s business.”
SALSA is also influencing the way builders and architects think about aging. Neda Norouzi, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is on the caravan to reframe aging. Dr. Norouzi is using effective framing to change the way future architects think about aging and to prepare them to confront ableism and ageism in the sector. She is also reaching leaders in the sector through presentations at conferences, such as a Summer Leadership Summit hosted by the American College of Healthcare Architects and the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health.
Jane and her SALSA partners know that when we change the way we talk about aging, we can change the way people think and ultimately change our communities into positive places for people at every age and stage of life.
Join the Movement to Reframe Aging
The National Center to Reframe Aging is developing tools to help advocates across the country effectively communicate for policies and funding that support the well-being of all of us as we age.
- Is your community a part of the movement to reframe aging?
- What ingredients does your community have, and what can you add to help reframe aging?
- How can the National Center to Reframe Aging help you shape your advocacy efforts?
Reach out to the National Center team to learn how you can inspire change within your state!
