The world’s population is aging  –  dramatically.  In the last 100 years or so, the percentage of people 60 years old and older have increased from 4% to 13% of the total US population.  Actual numbers are expected to increase from 35 million to 70 million between the years 2009 and 2030.  Life expectancy over the last 100 years has gone from 47 years of age to about 77 and is expected to go higher.  More people in the ‘over 60’ age group are alive today than have ever lived before.

Clearly, our community is changing.  Social institutions, services, families  –  everything is changing.  This ‘age wave’ looks much like a tsunami, and we must be prepared to survive it.

The Pruett Gerontology Center supports the mission of Abilene Christian University to educate its students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.  Academically through Sociology and Family Studies, the Center offers inter-disciplinary certificates, both undergraduate and graduate, that complement major course work.  Studies focus on the physiology, sociology and spiritual issues of aging from disciplines such as exercise science, sociology and family studies, social work and ministry.

The Center, however is not an academic department.  Rather, it functions best as a resource center: for communities of faith who want to develop ministry programs for their older adults; as a community outreach to caregivers; as an advocate to students and faculty at ACU to engage in a healthy, inter-generational approach to the reality of an aging population.

Pruett Gerontology Center brings the generations together with mutual respect and appreciation.