SAGE News and Upcoming Events
We have some great news at SAGE events this month. Check out these grants we've received to enrich SAGE programming:
CompreCare Foundation Grant
With the assistance of the CompreCare Foundation we are having time, structure and funding to create a health and wellness program for our SAGE community. The mini-health fair on May 12 will be our kick-off. Following the fair we will increase the number of physical engagement activities and workshops on a variety of health (mental and physical) topics. Over 2012 we will be recruiting and training peer mentors to offer encouragement. Wednesday morning Yoga classes and our Saturday morning walking classes have already taken off. In the next two weeks we will reactivate our medical walker drill team for all interested parties.
SUSTAIN (Seniors Using Supports to Age in Neighborhood)
SUSTAIN is a pilot project that addresses the social-emotional health and well-being of a vulnerable, hidden population: older adults who are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender (GLBT). GLBT persons face social and institutionalized barriers to accessing healthcare and social services as they age. A community-based participatory approach will be used to recruit and engage the GLBT and provider communities in the design and adaptation of an evidence-informed place-based, integrated, supportive services model called a NORC (naturally occurring retirement community).
The NORC model has been successfully used nationwide to help seniors access the health and social resources necessary to ‘age-in-place’ and has been shown to maintain older adult independence, increase life satisfaction, and promote neighborhood stability and social cohesion.”
There are a number of GLBT seniors living in the Capitol Hill area who would be able to stay in their homes, as they get older, if extra supports were available. SUSTAIN would serve not only the GLBT community but also the larger aging population in Capitol Hill.
Members of the SUSTAIN planning group include a grant project manager, the program manager of SAGE of the Rockies, a practicing geriatric physician/researcher and other support personnel from the Kaiser Permanente Colorado Institute for Health Research, the Director of Senior Solutions for Jewish Family Service of Colorado, members of the GLBT elder community and students attending the School of Social Work at Denver University. The Jewish Family Service of Colorado has established two similar programs in the Denver area.
The planning group will be winding down as we create a SUSTAIN Council who will begin and oversee the actual implementation of a naturally occurring retirement community in the Capitol Hill area. As we end the research phase we are adding agency members to our Council: Lutheran Family Service, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, and the Kaleidoscope Project are the most recent examples.