Attributed to: Amy Conrad, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Financial Wellbeing Programs, AARP Foundation
About AARP Foundation
AARP Foundation is the nation's leading organization serving the 39 million older adults living in poverty or one life event away from slipping into it. Our mission is to strengthen financial resilience for and with older adults by empowering individuals and improving systems.
Within our Quality Employment impact portfolio, we work to expand access to age-inclusive, quality jobs for adults age 50+ with low income through research, direct-service programs, impact litigation, strategic grantmaking, and partnerships.
Nationally, 39.4 million adults age 50+ live with low income. Only one in three remains continuously employed throughout their 50s, and workers with low income are twice as likely to experience long-term unemployment. At the same time, workers age 55+ are a rapidly growing segment of the workforce and already make up nearly one-quarter of all workers.
We see significant opportunity to embed age-inclusive design into workforce systems, meet employers’ talent needs, and expand economic opportunity for older workers. AARP Foundation brings research, grantmaking, convening power, public-sector relationships, and national reach to this work.
Why does AARP Foundation support Workforce Matters?
What is something in 2026 you’re excited about?
This year, we are completing a major workforce research initiative in California in collaboration with the California Department of Aging, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The study examines how workers age 50+ navigate employment disruptions, workforce services, training, and public benefits.
AARP Foundation will translate the findings into action by informing grantmaking, testing solutions, and working with public agencies, employers, and community partners to improve service design, access to training, hiring practices, and benefits navigation. We will share learnings from our work in California to strengthen age-inclusive workforce systems across the country.
What’s something in AARP Foundation’s workforce grantmaking you’d like others to know about?
In 2026, AARP Foundation launched its first grantmaking portfolio dedicated specifically to Quality Employment, building on our experience across research, direct service, impact litigation, and systems change. We intend to invest $2 million in California-based projects that seek to make workforce development, training, hiring, and employment practices more age-inclusive for older adults with low income.
Through this portfolio, we aim to identify and test interventions that improve older adults’ access to workforce services, relevant training, and quality jobs, resulting in economic security. We will pair funding with research, learning, convening, technical expertise, and continue to build relationships across public and private sectors to help promising approaches achieve systems impact.
