Mini-grant Projects

New Age of Aging Mini-grant Projects
Grant Period: February 1, 2008 – June 30, 2008

Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Palm Beach County: Expand Women Ambassadors Program
West Palm Beach, Florida
Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service will recruit volunteers to expand their Women Ambassadors Program. Volunteers will be trained as peer counselors to address feelings of isolation, depression, grief, and stress resulting from caregiving and the aging process.
Expected Outcomes: Volunteer recruits will increase their knowledge about the issues, expand their sense of community/neighbor impact, and gain confidence in their ability to identify and help individuals in need of counseling services.

Casa Central: Adult Wellness Center Dementia/Alzheimer’s Staff Training Program
Chicago, Illinois
Casa Central will provide an experiential learning opportunity for staff by implementing the Illinois Adult Day Service Association training on caring for adult day service participants with varying forms of dementia and early stages of Alzheimer’s.
Expected Outcomes: Staff will increase knowledge related to caring for clients with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Cognitively challenged clients will increase their level of participation in therapeutic and recreational activities. Participants and their caregivers will express increased satisfaction with dementia care services provided by the Adult Wellness Center. These successes, overall, will lead to an increased quality of client care.

Child & Family Guidance Center: Kinship Caregiver Conference
Tacoma, Washington
Child & Family Guidance Center will sponsor a kinship caregiving conference featuring a community resource fair with the participation of social service agencies, speakers, workshops, luncheon, and donated items for families. Each attendee will receive a monthly newsletter, one-to-one consultation with a “kinship navigator,” and each family will be screened for Kinship Caregiver Support Fund eligibility.
Expected Outcomes: Relative caregivers will become more aware of community resources and will feel valued.

Children & Families First: Research and Develop Elder Advocacy Volunteer Program
Wilmington, Delaware
Children & Families First will research and develop an Elder Advocacy Volunteer Program by conducting a community needs assessment survey and conducting focus groups. The agency’s volunteer coordinator will attend trainings to enhance aging knowledge, prepare needed support materials, and identify partners. Trained and certified volunteers will advocate on behalf of older adults and serve as family liaisons to ensure the older adults are receiving quality and needed services.
Expected Outcomes: In the short term, the volunteer coordinator will become knowledgeable about existing models, older adult issues, and community needs. Children & Families First will also secure funding to implement the program. In the long term, the community’s older adults will receive increased quality of care, communication with the family regarding older adults’ care will be improved, and a certification and training program will be developed for volunteers.

ChildServ: GrandFamily Events
Chicago, Illinois
ChildServ will enhance the intergenerational component of its GrandFamily Support Program. Two large events will foster family bonding, as well as encourage interaction between “grandfamilies” to enhance socialization.
Expected Outcomes: In the short term, families will value peer support and will be connected to resources in the community. Grandparents will effectively advocate for themselves and for their children, and will demonstrate healthy coping skills. In the long term, children will be assured of stable homes where grandparents are able to successfully parent them.

Family & Children First: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Group
Louisville, Kentucky
Family & Children First will start a group for grandparents raising children. Led by a family therapist and a grandparent who has or is successfully raising children, these sessions will address issues and barriers that grandparents face while raising children.
Expected Outcomes: Grandparents will expand their support network. In the long term, grandparents will improve their relationship with their grandchildren, and their grandchildren will be more successful in home and in school.

Family Foundations: Older Adults Financial Counseling and Literacy Program
Jacksonville, Florida
Family Foundations will implement financial counseling services for older adults and their caregivers through implementation of a financial literacy curriculum focused on the specific needs of older adults. Family Foundations will partner with other community service organizations to integrate services to develop continuous service delivery.
Expected Outcomes: Financial counselors will receive ongoing skill training and be prepared to meet the specific needs of older adults. Older adults will receive skilled financial counseling services and mentoring which will enhance self-sufficiency and an increased ability to understand and better manage financial matters. Collaborations with community organizations will ensure that financial counseling and financial literacy are integrated into service delivery.

Family Service Association: Connecting the Family
Kokomo, Indiana
Family Service Association will initiate a Connecting the Family program to provide weekly telephone calls, e-mails, or letters to family members of older adults who receive in-home support services from the agency (most of the family members live outside the immediate geographic area).
Expected Outcomes: A checklist of questions to ask older adults will be developed that can be modified to fit family member requests. By developing tailored information for family members, they will know that someone is caring for their loved one.

Family Service Association of San Antonio: Outreach to Underserved Older Adults
San Antonio, Texas
Family Service Association will reach out to adults 55 years and older who are isolated or raising grandchildren to make them aware of the services available through Neighborhood Place, a closed public elementary school that has been transformed into a one-stop family-strengthening center. Family Service Association will also encourage local senior service agencies to co-locate at the facility to increase access to services for older adults.
Expected Outcomes: By convening focus groups with diverse older adults to identify barriers, outreach methods will effectively reach targeted audiences. Older adults will have greater access to services through co-location and partnerships with other agencies.

Family Service Association of Western Riverside County: Increasing Staff Capacity
Moreno Valley, California
Family Service Association of Western Riverside County will provide gerontological training for staff members regarding mental health, grief, and bereavement issues. Clinical and older adult programs will engage in interdepartmental cross-training and strategic planning to improve leverage of existing resource to meet needs.
Expected Outcomes: Staff will be trained and a new grief/bereavement group will be created. Planning will provide the catalyst to leverage resources, and the planning group will continue to meet throughout the year.

Family Service of Central Indiana: Market Private-Pay Geriatric Care Management
Indianapolis, Indiana
Family Service of Central Indiana will market Vistas, a private-pay geriatric care management service. The intent is to use Vistas to help sustain services for lower-income older adults who pay limited, if any, fees. Marketing will include brochures, hand-outs, networking, and print advertisement.
Expected Outcomes: Marketing will lead to increased clients and referrals, which will result in increased revenue. It is expected that in the long term, the program will generate excess revenue to provide sustainable support for services to disadvantaged older adults.

Family Service of Morris County: Expand Senior Cents Money Management
Morristown, New Jersey
Family Service of Morris County will increase the impact of its Senior Cents Money Management Program by recruiting and supporting volunteers to be matched with clients currently on a waiting list. Senior Cents is an in-home program that helps older adults organize their bills, pay bills on time, stay in their homes, and remain active in the community.
Expected Outcomes: Clients will develop financial plans to move toward financial independence. In the long-term, clients will maintain financial independence and remain self-sufficient an in their own home.

Family Service of Racine: Promote Older Adults Mental Health Counseling Program
Racine, Wisconsin
Family Service of Racine will promote mental health counseling to older adults by
providing community outreach and disseminating mental health resource information in the community. Education for counseling staff will be enhanced to support expected increases in clients over the age of 65 due to the aging of the baby boomer generation. Adults over 65 will receive no-cost home-based counseling services from trained mental health professionals.
Expected Outcomes: Mental health professionals will develop skills for working with older adults. An increased number of low-income clients will receive quality mental health counseling services tailored to an older adult population.

Family Service of the Cincinnati Area: Behavioral Health Training Program
Cincinnati, Ohio
Family Service of the Cincinnati Area will work to build the competency of behavioral health professionals to meet the growing demand for services to older adults in mental health and substance abuse treatment. By training a core group of therapists, Family Service of the Cincinnati Area will leverage grant funds to provide staff trainings beyond the mini-grant period. These activities will help build the skills of the administrative staff and strengthen their participation with the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio.
Expected Outcomes: Staff will increase awareness, knowledge, and comfort in recognizing the signs and symptoms of depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and mental health diagnoses, as well as knowledge of treatment protocols in serving older adults. In the long term, Family Service staff will play an active community role in building capacity and coordination of aging services. Staff will provide skilled mental health services to clients referred by the Council on Aging.

FamilyMeans: Mental Health Training and Identification of Service Gaps
Stillwater, Minnesota
FamilyMeans will train counselors about mental health issues that affect older adults and how medical issues may complicate mental health presentations. FamilyMeans will also conduct focus groups with older adults to identify gaps in services and will report results to the community.
Expected Outcomes: Older adults will receive mental health services, improving their lives emotionally, physically, and financially. Older adults will be better served by closing service gaps and increasing community agency collaborations.

Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Sarasota-Manatee: Informational Lunches for At-Risk Older Adults
Sarasota, Florida
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Sarasota-Manatee will sponsor programs for at-risk older adults in low-income housing. Nutritious lunches will be provided, while professionals will provide information about nutrition, the potential dangers of combining multiple medications, mental health and substance abuse issues, the importance of physical activity, as well as topics identified by participants. A community resource guide will also be created.
Expected Outcomes: Older adults will benefit from the educational and socialization aspects of the lunches. The community resource guide will be a valuable reference for years to come.

Jewish Family Services: Wellness Program
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jewish Family Services will develop a one-hour “lunch and learn” program to give older adults and their children the tools they need to better care for themselves or their aging parents. Each session will address strategies to broach difficult subjects, including end of life wishes, driving, and finances; information about how to navigate the aging system and available community options; and a discussion of what normal aging entails.
Expected Outcomes: In the short term, participants will increase their knowledge about community resources, as well as increase their comfort with discussing difficult topics. In the long term, older adults will have increased opportunities to access services and caregiving relationships will be improved, reducing stress.

Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles: Peer Fall Prevention and Management Training
Los Angeles, California
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles will train service coordinators and peer volunteers as workshop facilitators to provide evidence-based classes, education and outreach on fall prevention and management of chronic diseases to low-income, underserved, and isolated older adults.
Expected Outcomes: A higher number of older adults will become involved in healthy lifestyles which will lead to increased participation in exercise classes, support groups, and other social activities at Jewish Family Service. In the long term there will be fewer outpatient visits and hospitalizations for older adults, which will lead to cost-saving benefits.

Matrix Human Services: Training Seminars and Information Management
Detroit, Michigan
Matrix Human Services will support staff developing expertise in aging by providing training seminars, investigating community needs, and streamlining information management to allow staff to spend more time enhancing services.
Expected Outcomes: Staff will be better prepared to work with older adults through increased knowledge about the aging population. Stipends will encourage more students to commit to gerontology. Agency operations will become streamlined and efficient with a new information management system.

Metropolitan Family Service: Maximizing Brief Encounters Training of Trainers Program
Portland, Oregon
Metropolitan Family Service will develop a training of trainers program for agency staff (master trainers) using the Maximizing Brief Encounters curriculum. Master trainers will train older adult volunteers and agency staff to build agency expertise on how to identify and assess key risk factors and perform basic interventions for isolated, homebound older adult clients. Metropolitan Family Service older adult volunteers and staff members will also be empowered to apply education received through training to their own health and wellness.
Expected Outcomes: Expert staff will provide skilled training in Maximizing Brief Encounters for volunteers. A cadre of volunteers will indicate expertise in subject matter and will be equipped to provide formal trainings for homebound older adults served by Metropolitan Family Service. Older adult clients will be better able to sustain and enhance their health, well-being, and safety as they strive to live independently. Older adult volunteers and staff will gain an enhanced ability to address risky behaviors of their aging clients as well as health concerns of their own, leading to active lives and longer independence.

Northern Virginia Family Service: Expand Money Management Program
Woodbridge, Virginia
Northern Virginia Family Service will increase the number of older adults served in the Arlington Money Management Program through increasing staff time. Services include assessing financial status, establishing an expense payment schedule, bill payment, reconciling bank statements, assessing eligibility for financial benefits, and acting as a liaison with creditors.
Expected Outcomes: An increased number of older adult clients will be better able to manage their finances, pay their bills on time, avoid additional debt, and remain safe and in their homes.

Our Family Services: Older & Disabled Adults Program
Tucson, Arizona
Our Family Services will develop and conduct a community-wide survey to determine the need for expanding private care options to include nursing homes and assisted living facilities in addition to private residences.
Expected Outcomes: Enhanced staff knowledge of older adult concerns, which will help to increase the number of supportive services being provided to clients and improve the quality of life for older adults living at home and in long-term or assisted living facilities.

The Centre for Women: ElderLink Expansion
Tampa, Florida
The Centre for Women will expand its ElderLink program, helping older adults stay in their homes longer. The Centre for Women will host training sessions to increase the number of volunteers who provide major yard work and chore services for older adults.
Expected Outcomes: Volunteers will be trained and matched with an appropriate chore project while older adults living in the community will enjoy a better quality of life and feel supported. Referrals for needed services/chores will be made as appropriate and caregivers will receive respite. Older adults will also benefit financially by avoiding fines associated with home-maintenance code violations.

The Children’s Shelter: Exploring Intergenerational Possibilities
San Antonio, Texas
The Children’s Shelter will conduct focus groups to gather information about what they might provide for an aging population and what older adults might be interested in providing for their agency. This represents a first step in becoming involved in older adult programming and services. The Children’s Shelter will also conduct a literature search to identify successful intergenerational programs across the nation.
Expected Outcomes: The Children’s Shelter will learn about meaningful ways to connect older adults with children. By remaining open to possibilities, it is expected that innovative programs will follow.

The Village Family Service Center: Improve Grandkins Program
Fargo, North Dakota
The Village Family Service Center will improve upon their Grandkins program by developing a course to train older adults to facilitate groups for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Volunteer grandparents will learn how to implement training sessions focused on family dynamics, childhood development, popular culture and children, stress and coping, grandparents' legal rights, and other pertinent issues for older adults raising their grandchildren.
Expected Outcomes: Through a peer-to-peer exchange, a cadre of well-trained grandparent facilitators will provide needed tools and prepare grandparents to more effectively raise their grandchildren.

Please contact Jonette Arms, project director, at 414-359-6523 or

800-221-3726,

with any questions.