The burgeoning of the older population is already affecting social work practice and will have a profound impact on every aspect of the profession in years to come. The Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW), located at Boston University’s School of Social Work, was established through a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to advance social work practice with older adults and their families. As part of its efforts, IGSW is committed to the provision of state-of-the-art, low-cost professional education in aging so that social workers in every practice setting can develop the knowledge and skills they required to work with older adults.

The Training Incentive Program (TIP) encourages providers of continuing education in social work to expand their offerings in geriatric education and training. It is critical that social workers working with older people enhance their skills. Additionally, specialized training in aging is becoming an increasingly important component of social work licensure in many states.

The IGSW Training Incentive Program can help your NASW chapter or community-based program create innovative training opportunities for social workers in your area. TIP is a small grants program with the mission to enable NASW state chapters and social work education programs to initiate training in aging or expand existing efforts. IGSW will provide grant awards of $1,000 and free publicity for the training event in IGSW publications.