Families provide about 80% of eldercare in America. The U.S. government would have to increase its eldercare programs by 400% to reach the level of care provided by family caregivers. For this reason, the Administration on Aging (AoA) is making approximately $6 million available for innovative programs to help families and informal caregivers.

These grants will be awarded competitively to new projects that will develop and test unique or improved approaches for serving caregivers and will evaluate the effectiveness of state and local programs. The five priority areas for the competition are:

Systems development;

Service components;

Linkages to special populations and communities;

Field-initiated demonstrations to develop and test new approaches to support caregivers; and

Projects that enhance the development of caregiver programs.