Donate to a Project

Even the Grizzled Need to Get Around!

Grandma and Grandpa need to go places, too! By providing a simple scooter, walker, or wheelchair to seniors in need, you can give them a bit of their independence back. Please consider a donation of $25 to assist our elders in the community who cannot afford this apparatus on their own. Thank you!

Manage Your Weight and Have Fun At AWI!

"The AWI Weight Management Program-An 8-week Challenge to Build the Skills for Long-term Success"

The AWI Weight Management Program will meet once a week, for an hour, for a total of eight weeks. The program will be taught by a Registered Dietitian, who developed the program using a variety of educational and practical weight loss/management techniques specific to older adults. These techniques are proven to increase accountability and change behavior.

While several general weight management programs exist, very few address the special needs of older adults. This includes, but is not limited to the need for additional calcium to strengthen bones and prevent the worsening of Osteoporosis, and the importance of eating a high protein, low carbohydrate diet to manage Type 2 Diabetes. Additionally, carrying around excess weight causes additional joint pain and inflammation.

Many older individuals know what they need to do to be healthy, however key barriers prevent them from making the changes necessary to eat healthy, and lose or maintain their weight. Additionally, the majority of older adults are retired and on a fixed income thereby struggling with how to eat healthy, and cover the high cost of medications and living expenses.

The weekly meetings will consist of a weigh in, food journal review (by the dietitian) and review of a key nutritional concept. Each participant will be issued a food journal to track food and support progress. A different topic will be covered each week and will address shopping and cooking on a budget, eating out, portion sizing, hidden calories, sugars, label reading, and low cost recipe revision. Participants will also be required to attend a booster session with the Dietitian, one month from the course completion date to weigh in and assess progress.

Participants will be incentivized for their attendance and will receive weekly tools to reinforce good nutrition. Incentives will include a workbook, food journal, cookbook, water bottle, tote bag, and weekly food samples.

Aging Services

Aging Services is a local nonprofit organization that offers a continuum of services to help older adults remain in their home. Aging Services Mission is to enhance the lives of older adults by providing services and resources to help them remain independent. Services include, but are not limited to, Case Management, Respite, Chore Home Repair, Transportation, Adult Day Health, Referral and Resource Services, and Volunteer Services. Witwer Healthy Aging is a program of Aging Services that is dedicated to helping seniors in our community live happy, healthy, active lives.

Witwer Healthy Aging offers countless activities and programs at over 11 different sites throughout our community to keep seniors engaged in the community. Programs range from social and physical activities to nutrition, education and evidence-based courses and opportunities. Help us to continue to provide these important programs by donating to Aging Services.

Telehospice

Telehospice addresses major issues that hospice patients and providers struggle with, the greatest being access to immediate care. When a situation arises that would typically require medical attention, patients will contact their nurse or our call center staffed by clinicians. If a patient and/or their caregiver feel it is an urgent situation and a nurse or physician is unable to provide immediate in-person medical care, such as with rural patients where the driving distance is further, or patients in a city who feel they have an immediate need they will now be able to visually connect with the clinicians in our call center. Every patient is different and has unique needs, however, some patient needs are more immediate or more frequent than others. Videoconferencing technology will allow clinical staff better communication with these patients who may need additional attention from time to time. Family members will no longer have to wait anxiously for a nurse to arrive, or struggle over the phone to describe difficult medical issues. Our on-call clinicians will be able to more effectively evaluate issues as they arise by having visual information and a face-to-face conversation, and patients and families will have the comfort of being able to actually see a clinical provider. Telehospice will provide our patients with improved and visual "on demand" care, and will give our senior patients and their families the reassurance that they can access care whenever they are in need. Alive sees a small number of "delayed response" comments on the satisfaction survey that is conducted after a patient's death. With this Telehospice project, we expect to show a decrease in those comments.

Care Giver Support

Currently 1 out of every 3 seniors in Washington State have some form of dementia. Many of these people are being cared for by loved ones at home. The amount of hours spent giving care is staggering; this often leads to increased risk to the care giver due to the stresses of caring for their loved one.

The Alzheimer Society of Washington (ASW) currently hosts 25 support groups each month. These support groups offer peer support, education and care giving tips and stress the importance of making sure the care givers take time to care for themselves. Our groups are designed to give care givers a safe and welcoming environment where they can discuss anything and get the support they need to continue to give the best care they can to their loved one.

Unfortunately, even though we offer 25 groups a month, it is not enough to give the support our community needs. As the population of people living with dementia continues to grow and the costs of long term care continue to rise, more and more families are keeping their loved ones home for a longer period of time. These factors are contributing to our groups are beginning to get overcrowded. In order to continue serving our families at a high level, we desperately need to start more more groups. However, our current resources are stretched to capacity.

Our need is clear: We need more support groups and more people to facilitate them. Our goal is to start an additional FIVE support groups within the next year. In order to do this, we need to develop a robust training program and identify facilitators for them. In order to do this we will need funding to create the training program, including training materials, train new facilitators and establish a quality control mechanism to ensure that all new groups are being facilitated in a manner conducive to our ASW's mission.

Terrific Tuesdays Day Club

Terrific Tuesdays Day Club program is staffed with a paid director, trained community volunteers and nursing students from local universities. This program is designed to meet the needs of both the person with dementia and their caregiver. Members have a sense of engagement while participating in memory-enhancing activities honoring their life stories. This program allows them the opportunity to reminisce and socialize with others while participating in non-aerobic exercise and creative, purposeful activities. They are also able to experience sensory stimulation and cook simple meals.
Research proves that cognitive and social stimulation improves mood and cognition and delays regression of activities in daily living for individuals with dementia. This means caregivers are able to give care at home for longer and delay residential facility placement. Caregivers also benefit with a break to recharge, relax, maintain relationships with friends, and maintain their own health by keeping up with personal doctor visits and more.

Help ASTS Purchase A New Van to Safely Transport Seniors In Our Community!

Amherst Senior Transportation Service (ASTS) is committed to providing a special system of transportation to enhance the quality of life and promote the independence of Amherst residents, 55 years of age and older. Your donation will help us safely transport seniors with an updated fleet which is the costliest and most valuable hard asset of our organization. In March of 2016 a donation contributed toward the purchase of a brand new vehicle. Over a period of 7 months, that vehicle logged 20,000 miles which included more than 3,000 trips to medical appointments and grocery stores for seniors who would otherwise be unable to get out in the community.
Thank you for supporting this often overlooked but very necessary nonprofit transportation service!

Rose Kleiner Center

The Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View is a supportive, caring adult day health program that encourages the vitality and well-being of less-independent older adults, enabling them to stay at home and avoid premature institutionalization. It also offers much needed respite for families. In this professional yet warm setting, adults living with a chronic disease, dementia, or a disability receive individualized therapeutic, social, and health services for some part of the day. Avenidas Rose Kleiner Center is licensed by the State of California to provide two levels of daytime care-adult day care and adult day health care. We want to make sure that everyone can attend regardless of the cost. Funds will subsidize care for low income seniors.

Benedictine Health Center of Minneapolis Outdoor Beautification Project

The Benedictine Health Center Minneapolis (BHCM) is raising funds for an outdoor beautification project that would make our enclosed patio space more life-giving and calming for relaxation, quiet time, visiting, eating and reflection. We believe that improved landscaping to our patio would uplift our seniors and patients at many levels of health and recovery.

BHCM is located on the southeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, in a culturally and economically diverse area known as Elliot Park. Patients receive a variety of care from us including respiratory and ventilator care, short-term rehabilitation and palliative care. Underlying the range of medical conditions the facility deals with is the prevalence of patients who demonstrate challenging behaviors due to mental illness or substance abuse.

Through our care and programming, we strive to open doors to beauty and fun for each person as they deal with their challenges and health issues. Trio Landscaping is partnering with us to bring this project alive for our residents and families. They donated their expertise and service by giving us a landscaping plan and are helping us lean into their network and relationships to secure other donations and assistance.

Blair Senior Services Home Delivered Meals

There are family members, neighbors and friends in our community with limited resources who need your help. As we age, things that we take for granted such as bathing, a hot meal and transportation, become a real challenge. Unfortunately, government funding is not sufficient to meet the needs that exist in our community. The Home Delivered Meals Program is one of the most basic ways that Blair Senior Services, Inc. can accomplish its mission of meeting the nutritional needs and improving and maintaining the health and well-being of older individuals in our community. Over the last year, the Agency has served some 10,000 consumers. Of those consumers, 7,000 are older individuals, the majority of which have incomes near or below the poverty level. We're asking for your help as our Agency strives to continue to our county's older residents.

Miles of SMiles

SMiles is raising funds to continue providing older adults in rural Blount County the opportunity to improve their quality of life and reduce their vulnerability. Senior-friendly transportation that's affordable, adaptable and convenient keeps the elderly independent and retains their dignity once they no longer are able to drive. SMiles volunteers use their personal vehicles to take members wherever they'd like to go within this rural Tennessee county. A total of 23,000 trips have been made within the past five years, covering over 126,000 miles!

Even though volunteers provide the essential transportation for SMiles, operating costs are still present. Software, insurance, staffing, mileage reimbursements - they all add up each year. It's important that SMiles is financially sound so folks can rely on it for years' to come.

"Sensational" Sensory Room for Dementia Care

Sensory rooms are special places for elders living with Alzheimer's disease and dementia to safely explore and stimulate all five senses. The rooms can be used for calming or stimulating, depending on the need. New treatment methods to cope with the progressive disease and ways to love those with the disease are constantly evolving. One new treatment method in memory care is a sensory room that combines gentle light, movement, music and tactile objects designed to either calm or stimulate residents. Dr. Anke Jakob, of Kingston University, says sensory rooms, "Can enhance feelings of comfort and well-being, relieve stress and pain and maximize a person's potential to focus, all of which help improve communication and memory." She went on to say, "Traditionally, these spaces have been geared more towards younger adults and children with learning or physical disabilities; however, a specially designed Sensory Room emphasizes the benefits of addressing all the senses to support residents diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. Soft textiles, familiar everyday objects, interesting things to smell and taste, sound and film can all have an important part to play in that process."
With a goal of $5,000, Bridgepointe at Village Manor would like to establish our first Sensory Room with the following to benefit the seniors living with dementia: sofa with soft textured fabric and pillows; a rocking chair with soft cushions; soft indirect light with dimmer switch and bubble lighting;elements of nature with water feature, plants, stones, shells, branches; music source with various music styles available; nature videos with scenery and animals with calming music.

LivingWell Fitness

Bridges is requesting support for our Adult Education & Outreach programming which offers a variety of programs, including ASL classes in three levels; workshops and trainings on Deaf language, Deaf culture, and working with the Deaf and hard of hearing communities, assistive device trainings, and employer orientations; special trainings for first responders. Adult Education & Outreach also hosts Community Building programs such as Game Days and field trips for Deaf and hard of hearing adults and is working to develop a Deaf mentor program in conjunction with our youth program. Games Days and community outings provide our senior clients with important opportunities for engagement with their community and each other!

Under Adult Education & Outreach, Bridges also offers LivingWell, our fitness center with classes and personal trainers fully accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing, as well as a series of educational presentations, workshops, physical fitness assessments, classes, consultations, and social gatherings.

Empowerment & Advocacy, a critical piece of Adult Education & Outreach, provides services such as education advocacy, job training and placement assistance, self-advocacy support, housing, healthcare access, resource referral, and much more. Empowerment & Advocacy also hosts a series of educational workshops and events such as Domestic Violence, Legal Rights, Living Wills, VITA (tax prep assistance), etc.

Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing hopes to serve at least 150 clients through our Empowerment & Advocacy program during FY 2018. LivingWell | Fitness center will serve 90 individual clients and most will meet at least one mutually-determined fitness goals.

2019 Paint A Thon

Brush Up Nebraska Paint A Thon is a community based volunteer program that paints the exterior of homes of qualified low income elderly and low income permanently disabled homeowners in the Omaha Metropolitan Area so that they can maintain their property, increase energy efficiency, and beautify the community that they have lived in for many years.

Senior Safety & Accessibility

Clients, family members, and caregivers contact us to help them address their aging issues and concerns. Our staff provides each client with a home visit to assess their individual situation, conduct a home safety check, and then provide each client with their own care management plan. CASA's goal is to provide needed direct services, at no cost to our clients, allowing them to remain in their own homes. We receive no reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance providers. We depend on local donations and community volunteers who deliver our services. The average CASA client's income is $1,010/month.

The concept of aging in place in its simplest form is growing older without having to move. It allows our local residents to remain as independent as they possible can, regardless of their abilities, in homes that are safe and secure. That is the foundation of CASA's Aging in Place program. All assistance is provided at no cost to our clients, and CASA receives no reimbursement fees for any of these services. CASA currently serves 2,267 seniors and homebound citizens.

CASA's Aging in Place program currently offers the following services:

Wheelchair Ramps, CASA Vegetable Garden, Grab Bars and Handrails, Safety Net Health Care Services, Friendly Visiting/Telephone Reassurance,
TEMP$ (Taking Energy Measures Personally = $avings), Information and Referral, Weather Assistance (A/Cs, fans), Transportation to Medical Appts.

Purpose: CASA's two primary areas of concern for our clients are safety and accessibility. Grab bars installed in and outside of their tub/shower by trained volunteers can prevent falls. For those who can no longer stand (for showering) or get up and out of the bathtub, a shower chair or tub transfer bench can make all the difference. This durable medical equipment (DME) is not covered by Medicare insurance and without CASA, most of our clients would be unable to purchase it, thus placing them at risk for falls.

Accessibility is the other barrier for many disabled or elderly clients. Going out to their mailbox can be fraught with safety concerns, especially if their front steps are without a handrail. CASA volunteers can also eliminate this risk for wheelchair-bound clients by constructing wheelchair ramps.

CFC Services for Older and Vulnerable Adults

Catholic Family Center's Adult and Aging Services provide special, specific and vital services for adults and aging adults (17% of our clients in 2015 were 65 years of age and older and nearly 30% of our clients were over 55 years of age). Partnering with agencies like Lifespan and Home Instead help extend our reach and effectiveness, integrating care for the whole-person, and keeping more aging adults in their home.

Our Adult and Aging Services program includes Adult Protective/Guardianship Services, Eldersource, In-home Services for Older Adults (with which we partner with Home Instead), Kinship Navigator (for grandparents raising family members' child(ren)) and STAR (Support to Aging Residents) Program. During 2015, we served over 5400 aging adults.