Helping Reach Hard-To-Reach Groups

Mystic Valley Elder Services prides itself on offering a variety of services and a wealth of information to elders and caregivers. However, within these two groups are unique populations that require targeted attention. To reach these groups—groups that include elders who are blind, elders suffering from arthritis, and elder minorities—MVES receives funds through its Area Agency on Aging designation. As an “AAA,” MVES completes an Area Plan every four years that, in part, identifies specific groups who may not be able to access services in the same way that the majority of elders do. By looking at Area Plans and their findings, the Administration on Aging, working with Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Elder Affairs, distributes grant money to AAAs across the state.

Each year, MVES asks organizations that serve individuals in MVES’ eight communities to submit proposals that outline how these organizations can help the agency reach these unique groups. The proposals are reviewed carefully by the Board of MVES and organizations are selected if their proposed services meet needs of the identified groups. Such service must be delivered in a timely and effective fashion and is monitored by MVES.

For the federal fiscal year 2005, 11 organizations were presented with grants. These organizations and the service they will provide are:

Arthritis Foundation—Massachusetts Chapter (Workshops on arthritis and pain management)
The Community Family (Caregiver respite)
EMARC (Advocacy for elders caring for adult children)
Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center (Outreach to Chinese elders)
Greater Boston Legal Services (Legal advocacy for elders)
Hallmark Health Visiting Nurse Association (Support for professional and family caregivers)
MAB, d/b/a Massachusetts Association for the Blind (Services to low-vision elders)
New England Homes for the Deaf (Services to deaf elders)
Vietnamese American Civic Association (Outreach to Vietnamese elders)
Visiting Nurse Association of Middlesex East (In-home evaluation, education and support for Alzheimer's’ patients and their caregivers)
Winchester Hospital (Osteoporosis education)

The new grantees were welcomed at an orientation session at MVES on September 23, 2004. The services that the grants will support will begin on October 1.

For more information about MVES Title III grants, please contact Sean Maney.