Our mission: AGESW provides leadership in the areas of gerontological social work education, research, and policy, and fosters cooperation, collegiality, and an exchange of ideas among social work educators, researchers, and students committed to or interested in gerontology.
AGESW’s beginnings trace back to 1981 when a small, informal group of gerontological social work educators who felt as though there wasn’t enough focus on gerontology by the Council on Social Work Education decided to form an independent gerontology organization. That organization was called the National Committee for Gerontology in Social Work Education and was dedicated to to promoting gerontology in the programs of the members’ schools. The organization’s name was changed in 1995 to the current name to reflect international members and to create a more manageable acronym. (For a more detailed history of AGESW, please see “A 20 Year Retro-History of AGE-SW” by Robert L. Schneider, Founding President of AGESW.)
Today, AGESW maintains an international membership of hundreds of educators who teach, conduct research, and promote gerontology at all levels of programs of social work education.
