Our vision at AARP Foundation is a country free of poverty, where no older person feels vulnerable. To achieve that goal, we focus on four interrelated needs: food security, housing security, income security and social connectedness. We serve vulnerable people 50 and older by creating and advancing effective and innovative solutions to help low-income older adults meet these essential needs, supporting those efforts with vigorous legal advocacy to protect the rights of all older adults, so they can thrive.

Food Security – Our long-term goal is to lead and maintain an effective system to coordinate resources to decrease food insecurity. This issue is important because more than 10 million older adults face hunger daily, which increases their risk for chronic health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. In the next three years, we are seeking to reduce the negative health outcomes of vulnerable adults over 50 served by AARP Foundation due to hunger/poor nutrition, and to reduce food insecurity among the vulnerable 50+ people we serve.

Housing Security – Our long-term goal is to advance and influence solutions to improve the supply of adequate and affordable housing. This issue is important because more than 19 million low-income 50+ households struggle with unaffordable or inadequate housing, which often keeps them isolated and unable to access supportive services. In the next three years, we are seeking to increase the number of low-income 50+ people in affordable and adequate housing. Our legal team works in courts at every level to protect older adults from housing discrimination.

Income Security – Our long-term goal is to develop and deliver solutions that help vulnerable adults 50 and older secure opportunities to generate income and to secure, protect, and maintain financial assets. This issue is important because more than 20 million older adults are at risk of not having enough income to meet their basic needs. In the next three years, we are seeking to increase the number of people served who secure or advance in jobs each year.

Social Connectedness – Our long-term goal is to optimize meaningful connections to reduce the negative health outcomes associated with social isolation. This issue is important because over 8 million older adults are socially isolated, putting them at risk for poor health. In the next three years, we are seeking to reduce the degree of isolation among people served and reduce targeted negative health outcomes associated with isolation.

Food Security – To tackle the issue of food insecurity, we are employing three broad approaches. First, we seek to educate lawmakers and industry decision-makers about hunger's impact on low-income Americans over age 50 and its emerging role as a health issue. Second, we extend the reach of existing programs that provide healthy options to those who need them. Finally, we identify and elevate new solutions that help make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible to older adults. In the near term, we are working to engage producers, distributors, health care providers and hunger relief organizations to address the root causes of senior hunger.

Housing Security – To tackle the issue of housing security, AARP Foundation has developed a series of strategies to ensure that vulnerable older Americans are able to age in place and remain in their homes. Since it is more difficult to build new affordable housing stock, we are working to ensure that existing homes are equipped to meet the needs of low-income older Americans. We will also work with policymakers and communities to make the infrastructure of transportation and sidewalks more available. Our approach also includes helping to advance financial products that support the affordability of homes for older adults, and fighting for older adults' rights to fair housing in the courts.

Income Security – To tackle the issue of income security, we have developed a three-pronged approach to help older adults earn, manage and protect their income. First, AARP Foundation will work with policymakers, financial institutions and our partners to create relevant products, services and education tools that increase financial stability. Next, we will extend new and existing programs that provide employment and access to income supports and income-generation opportunities. Finally, we will work to educate older adults on how to recognize, refuse and report financial fraud, supporting these efforts with vigorous legal advocacy.

Social Connectedness – AARP Foundation is working to ensure that low-income, vulnerable older Americans are socially connected so that they can live healthier lives, avoid loneliness and depression, and stay active longer. We have identified four risk factors – limited mobility, falls, hearing loss and limited caregiving
resources/support – as drivers of isolation. We are developing research to educate decision-makers about the effects of isolation, and we have created a coalition of national, regional and local organizations working together to tackle social isolation and improve social connectedness for vulnerable older adults.

AARP Foundation has a range of internal resources to support our work. Each of the program areas is staffed with a complement of employees who bring the skill and expertise to drive the work forward. These include subject matter experts as well as general practitioners capable of moving projects forward. Budget is allocated to each program unit in alignment with the breadth and scope of planned work.

Shared services provide support to all of the program areas. These include marketing and communications, technology, program evaluation, strategic planning, innovation, and development. Additionally, AARP Foundation Litigation conducts litigation to protect the rights of vulnerable older Americans across all of our issues areas.

As the charitable affiliate of AARP, we benefit from the strength of AARP's advocacy arm and the influence of its 37 million members.
External resources include partnerships, influence, and the ability to convene disparate stakeholders.

As an organization, AARP Foundation formally monitors its strategic goals and objectives every quarter. We look at the results of the previous quarter and decide whether each strategy should continue as-is, continue with modifications, or be stopped. At the organizational level, we look at the percentage of strategies that are achieving their targets to signal progress and success.

For individual programs or activities, a logic model is developed when the program is first formed. The program team works with the evaluation group to identify outputs, outcomes and long-term impacts. An evaluation plan is developed based on the program's stage of development. The evaluation and program teams identify the indicators that need to be tracked for evaluation and performance management. The metrics are collected monthly in a central system that is accessible to all AARP Foundation employees. The metrics are reviewed at least quarterly to identify progress and opportunities for improvement.

Food Security - Key indicators: Reduced negative health outcomes of vulnerable 50+ served due to hunger (target: 5% reduction); improved food security of low-income 50+ by increasing access, availability, affordability, and/or the right kind of food by 2017 (target: 50K served). Milestones: 10 strategic partnerships by 2017; establish methodology for measurement by 2016.
Housing Security – Key indicator: increased number of LI 50+ in affordable and adequate housing (target:10,000 by 2017). Milestones: 5 new strategic partnerships by 2017; 9 new concepts by 2017.

Income Security – Key indicators: Increased number of people served who secure or advance in jobs each year (target: 6,000); increased number of LI 50+ who avoid predatory practices per year (target: 300,000). Milestones: 10 new partnerships by 2017 with 6 by 2016; 5 new concepts by 2017.

Social Connectedness – Key indicators: Reduce targeted negative health outcomes associated with isolated people among people served (target: 8%); reduced degree of isolation among people served (target: 10%). Milestones: 9 new partnerships by 2017; 3 new interventions by 2017 (1 per year).

Food Security – For food security, we have improved the food security of over 10,000 low-income 50+ people and are moving toward our goal of 50,000. We achieved our interim milestone of creating 10 strategic partnerships. We have not yet met our outcome of reducing the negative health outcomes of 5% of the people we served. Due to the nature of our programs, it has been difficult to track the health outcomes that can be attributed to our work. We have refined our strategies to focus on the methodology to measure. We have also narrowed our objectives to the people we serve rather than setting a goal for the population at large.

Housing Security – For housing security, we have not yet met any of the outcomes. We are making progress toward increasing the number of low-income 50+ in affordable and adequate housing by 10,000 by 2017. We have achieved our milestones of establishing 5 new strategic partnerships and are on track for 9 new concepts by 2017. Since much of the housing work exists outside of our control, we are looking at strategies for legislative advocacy that will help stimulate the production and protection of affordable housing.

Income Security – For income security, we are on track to reach 6,000 people securing or advancing in jobs each year. We have not yet met our outcome of 300,000 avoiding predatory practices each year. We learned that it is hard to measure the incidence or avoidance of fraud since fraud victims often do not report. We have adjusted the strategy to include partnering with financial institutions that are also invested in the reduction of fraud. We are on track to reach our partnership milestone and have met our milestone of developing 5 new concepts.

Social Connectedness – We have not yet met any of the outcomes for social connectedness. However, we are on track with the milestones that would get us there. First, we have established an isolation assessment tool that allows us to measure the degree of isolation among the people we served. The tool has been externally validated. We are now able to roll it out among the people we serve. Additionally, we are narrowing down the health outcomes that will be tracked to measure the reduction in targeted negative health outcomes.