Anti-Ageism Training

We ❤ Aging

Ageism is a harmful, pervasive force that harms the health, economic, and social well-being of older adults. The World Health Organization defines it as the stereotypes (how we think), prejudices (how we feel), and discrimination (how we act) toward others or ourselves based on age. It’s worth underscoring that ageism can be internalized—we may not even realize that we are sending ourselves harmful messages on a daily basis!

One way Age Friendly Seattle is tackling ageism is by raising our collective awareness of this issue through a custom training we created. In 2023, we launched ‘We❤Aging: Anti-Ageism Training’ for City of Seattle employees. In May 2024, we adapted this training to make it available to the public.

In less than one hour, this course provides background and context for understanding aging and ageism, its impacts on all of us as we grow older, and strategies for how we can push back against ageism.

We all have something to learn from examining our biases around aging and ageism, both personally and professionally. We hope that this training will help viewers see the world with a more age-inclusive lens, and that it will inspire everyone to become an advocate—for ourselves and others, wherever we are on the aging continuum.

Watch it now!

For a sneak preview of the training, click on the image above. To take the full training, click the link below. 

We❤Aging: Anti-Ageism Community Training

Post-Training Debriefs

It’s great to watch the training alone, and even better to talk about it with other people. To encourage deeper engagement, Age Friendly Seattle staff and community ambassadors host in-person and virtual group discussions with teams across the city. Participants have shared that these discussions are meaningful, both personally and professionally. Discussion helps cement concepts and identify opportunities to incorporate insights into programs and plans.

Age Friendly Seattle staff are happy to support community groups that hold post-debrief chats. If you have a group you would like to engage—whether coworkers, a social group, or any other network—we'd love to help. Also, our post-training discussion guide is available to help others facilitate conversations after watching the training.

Companion Discussion Toolkit PDF—coming soon!

In addition, we will gladly share learnings from this work with other cities and organizations that share our enthusiasm for reducing ageism, as we did when we presented  ‘We❤Aging: Anti-Ageism Training’ at the 2024 American Society on Aging national conference in San Francisco. To connect, e-mail AgeFriendly@seattle.gov.

Anti-Ageism Resources

Visit the Anti-Ageism section of the Age Friendly Seattle Resources page.

 Additional Reading

Age Friendly Seattle staff and other contributors have published several articles in AgeWise that outline both the impacts of ageism and the theory, process, and goals of our anti-ageism training. For more information, read: