Metta Fund

People We Meet: Bayview’s seniors taught William Rhodes how to party and quilt William Rhodes began teaching art in Bayview 20 years ago. He's now preserving Black San Francisco history through quilts.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s recent series on aging highlights an urgent issue — but framing it as a “doom loop” reinforces harmful ageist narratives. Aging isn’t a crisis befalling “them” — it’s a shared journey for all of us.

When media language suggests older adults are primarily a burden, it creates distance and justifies inaction. It obscures the contributions elders make every day — working, caregiving, volunteering and anchoring neighborhoods. It also ignores the deep inequities older adults of color face due to decades of displacement, rising housing costs and systemic exclusion.

Organizations like Bayview Senior Services and Self-Help for the Elderlyare already doing the work — supporting elders with dignity, cultural responsiveness and deep community trust. But they need sustained investment, not scarcity.

San Francisco has the potential to lead the nation on aging equity — but that means going beyond crisis narratives. It means supporting housing reform, community care infrastructure, and the nonprofits that hold these systems together. Just as importantly, it means reshaping how we talk about aging itself.

Aging is not a doom loop. It’s an opportunity — if we’re willing to meet it with courage and care.

The aging population is the real doom loop. It will change everything about life in the Bay Area.

Opinion: The 'disappearing safety net’ will harm people throughout the country, write Janet Y. Spears and Anna Karrer Manley. https://phlnthrp.com/40KVv1G

Spears is president and CEO, and Karrer Manley is senior director of communications and strategy of Metta Fund.

Capacitaciones Vocacionales

📨 Our letter to the editor was published earlier this week in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, responding to Alex Daniels' reporting on federal program cuts in McDowell County, West Virginia.

🇺🇸 The crisis extends nationwide—affecting working families, older adults, and people with disabilities from Detroit to Phoenix to California.

🪜 While philanthropy can't replace government, we must step up:

💸 We can increase donations ;💪 offer flexible operating grants; 📢 and invest in advocacy, narrative change, and cultural change that pushes the government to fulfill its role. ⚖️

McDowell County's story is America's story. What we do next defines who we are.

Read it at link below.

Opinion: The 'disappearing safety net’ will harm people throughout the country, write Janet Y. Spears and Anna Karrer Manley. https://phlnthrp.com/40KVv1G

Spears is president and CEO, and Karrer Manley is senior director of communications and strategy of Metta Fund.

June Boyd, 90, works as a director's assistant for a nonprofit that helps older Americans find work. She's still working out of financial necessity.

(Credit: Brittany Greeson for BI)

Paulette Green and Donna Dear, a married couple living on a 111-acre farm in Maryland, have become the subjects of a new short film that highlights their enduring love and commitment to their land and community.

What Does Retirement Really Mean? We asked readers to submit their stories of retirement — to share their experiences, as well as their advice.