Earlier this month, Store to Door hosted our first Community Impact Social Hour and Briefing. The event was designed to foster discussion about the complexity of needs facing low-income homebound seniors living in our community. We are proud to be part of a community of nonprofit service providers that are committed to working together to support our most vulnerable seniors.
Together, we focus on reducing the challenges and barriers of remaining independent.
At the social hour event, we were pleased to share video comments from Senator Ron Wyden (an early Store to Door volunteer), underscoring the importance of our ongoing work of improving public policy and service delivery to support our seniors. Urban gerontologist Alan DeLaTorre, PhD, spoke about the changing demographics in our senior population, as well as the economic, social, and structural challenges that put pressure on our aging population. He also underscored the strengths of seniors and talked briefly about how many seniors need targeted supportive services as they age.
The centerpiece of the evening was a panel presentation discussing the obstacles and opportunities associated with food access and security, housing stability, peer and social support, and access to quality healthcare. Here are just a few of the highlights.
- Affirming that every human being deserves access to healthy and nutritious food
- Helping seniors to maintain their housing is imperative as our community continues to be challenged to create affordable housing
- Everyone needs social connections and peer supports to age with dignity
- The shift towards a team approach to home healthcare and healthcare coordination improves health outcomes for seniors.
We are thankful that Store to Door is able to work in partnership with agencies like Northwest Pilot Project, Portland Open Bible Community Pantry, Villages NW, and Housecall Providers to address the needs of older adults. We look forward to taking the insights from events such as this one to begin building a collaborative network of organizations that can provide scaffolded services to seniors that will provide housing and food security, access to healthcare, and social connection.
Additionally, it is key in our support of our homebound members of our community that we reinforce their societal value. On our end, we will continue to expand our Resource Referral Program that contributes to these four areas such as yard care and home maintenance to reduce evictions and improve safety, transportation to provider appts and social interactions and value through community networks.
We were also honored to present our Helen Bernstein Leadership Award to longtime partner Kaiser Permanente! The award was accepted by Kaiser representative Betty Benson and recognizes their outstanding partnership with Store to Door in support of homebound seniors and adults living with disabilities! Huge thanks to Kaiser for their ongoing support of our program work, and their commitment to serving those in need in our community!
