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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2400
igaa057.2400
Abstracts
Session 6100 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Developing a Volunteer Education Initiative for Older Adults’ Health
Seidel Liz 1 Cortes Tara 2 John Cinnamon St 3 1 
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York, New York, United States
2 
New York University, New York, New York, United States
3 
Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, New York, New York, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”687 687
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Older adults need sufficient information to make healthy decisions and be active participants in their healthcare. Yet there is often a lack of information available. The Bronx Health Corps (BHC) was created to meet this need by providing older adults with usable knowledge on managing health conditions and promoting healthy behaviors in community-based settings. The BHC trained 175 volunteers, educated 2,065 older adults, with a total attendance of >5,000. Steps of creating a volunteer education initiative will be presented with qualitative and quantitative data utilization in implementation of the program. Focus groups with older adults noted challenges in addressing community health needs and the importance of reaching outside of healthcare settings to address the health of the community. Focus groups with Spanish speaking older adults and caregivers expanded knowledge on their attitudes toward the 4Ms and their ability to use that knowledge in interacting with their providers.