From Our Centers - News

May is Older Americans Month, and the College of Social Work would like to take this time to recognize one of its academic centers whose mission is to innovate with older adults through research, education and engagement to make central Ohio communities age friendly. The Age-Friendly Innovation Center (AFIC) is committed to a set of principles that guide and ground the work of the center including striving toward culture competence, accessibility, community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration.

In the summer of 2023, a group of 25 teachers and staff members from Dublin City Schools (DCS) began a rigorous two-year program that would end with participants receiving a master’s degree in social work from The Ohio State University and a job with a DCS school as a mental health specialist.

Congratulations to the Age-Friendly Innovation Center for its recent grant from The Columbus Foundation and supporting foundation, the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation. The new funding will go toward the center’s 2026 Central Ohio Regional Assessment on Aging, which is conducted in collaboration with the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging and the Franklin County Office on Aging.

People age 50 and older represent the fastest-growing group experiencing homelessness in the United States, according to federal data. As baby boomers and members of Generation X age, that number is expected to rise. A common cause? Rent prices.

Congratulations to Logan Davis, HEC outreach & engagement manager, who was recently awarded the 2025 Perspectives Award by the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA).

In a recent press release by the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging (COAAA), the Age-Friendly Innovation Center’s (AFIC) Shallow Subsidy Pilot Program (SSPP) is spotlighted for its impact in providing targeted shallow subsidies for aging communities. Lead by AFIC and Principal Investigator Katie Calhoun, the research initiative was launched in July 2024 in an effort to promote housing security for low-income adult renters around Ohio.

This year’s Community Partnership Breakfast brought together students, faculty and staff to meet with community partners to reflect on the university’s many community-based collaborations. In addition to celebrating these programs’ successes, this event also held discussions about how these partnerships can continue to make a positive impact in years to come.

Since opening at The Ohio State University in 2015, the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery (HECAOD) has been developing college campus professionals who support alcohol and drug misuse prevention.

Congratulations to the Age-Friendly Innovation Center (AFIC) and the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging (COAAA) for receiving a partnership award from the Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

A new program from the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) in The Ohio State University College of Social Work is helping prepare health care workers and first responders with tools to treat people suffering adverse reactions to psychedelic drugs.