Social work is at the heart of every program and service DOROT offers to keep older adults connected, engaged and living independently as valued members of the community. For National Social Work Month, we're celebrating and getting to know some of the dedicated social workers across DOROT.
Meet Claire! Claire Solomon Nisen, LMSW, MPH is the Manager of Lasting Impressions, a group of programs that provides opportunities for older adults to explore and share their important stories and meaningful memories through lectures, workshops, social gatherings, creative arts and aging workshops, and advance care planning programs and conversations.
Get to know Claire below:
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Claire: I grew up outside of Chicago and Philadelphia. My parents are both “professor people.” I live in Forest Hills, Queens and have two small children. I have always liked to read, write, and talk (I was one of those who had “talks too much” on my report card.) I went to college and then moved to Mississippi for two years and then to New York and worked at a Jewish educational organization, doing pretty cool stuff but not working directly with people – and I missed it! I particularly missed working with older adults. Enter…DOROT (surprised?)
For nearly 3 years I was a volunteer DOROT Friendly Visitor and visited with my friend Natalie. We sang, played piano, went to church, took walks, fed stray cats, and more. I began doing more informed research into how I could work with older adults and learned that Columbia had a dual-degree program in Social Work and Public Health with tracks on Aging. Off I went.
I had field placements in a school in the Bronx with 10th graders, and in a hospital, did my Public Health Practicum at a hospice in Westchester, and still missed working with older adults. I then found a role at Mount Sinai that enabled me to work with volunteers and, peripherally, with older adults and with patients at their end of life. I then again found DOROT. I’m grateful to be here.
Can you share a bit about your role and program area?
Claire: I often say that all parts of my job invite our constituents to think about who they “were, are, or want to be” – what a gift!
I manage our Lasting Impressions programs. This includes overseeing our Creative Arts and Aging workshops which Sarie (LMSW, Program Coordinator) coordinates, like poetry, memoir, quilting or storytelling programs. I oversee our programs about Advance Care Planning and End of Life Decision Making, and our What Matters program, which invites us to think about how to talk to those who are important to us about our goals and values as they relate to end-of-life planning.
I also manage our Aging Alone Together team, including Cleo, Growth and Partnerships Coordinator, and Carley, LMSW, Program Coordinator. And I am so lucky to work directly with our Pearls of Wisdom, a group of 60+ storytellers who tell their personal, vital, and impactful stories.
How do you think your background in social work informs what you do?
Claire: I’m not sure it’s possible to separate who you are and how you exist from what you do! I’m a better listener, thinker, speaker, and global citizen – on a micro and macro level- because of the education that I have been deeply privileged to receive – it’s not lost on me that education is a privilege. I’m honored to do this work, and to have been, and to continue to be, taught, by our staff, by our constituents, and by those whom I have met as a result of the work that I am grateful to do.
What do you find most fulfilling about your work?
Claire: My work overflows with meaning. I can have a conversation about end-of-life-care decision-making, knowing that it will likely be significant for the constituent with whom I am speaking. I can also start a Zoom program and begin to talk about the weather, only to realize that it’s someone’s birthday and 100 of us are spontaneously going to sing "happy birthday" to her. That is a different, yet equally valuable, type of meaning. This is also, of course, thanks to all of those on my Lasting Impressions team, and Onsite & Special Programs team, and all of our colleagues. We don’t become ourselves by ourselves.
Thank you to Claire and all of the dedicated and caring social workers at DOROT!