Standing with Our Elders to Prevent Abuse
Senior Corps has taken an active role in increasing awareness about the threats of fraud and abuse to our nation's seniors. With the approach of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on Saturday, June 15, we are again reminded that this is an ongoing problem.
Elder abuse takes many forms — physical, emotional, financial, and sexual — and can come at the hands of strangers, family, and trusted caregivers or advisers. Studies estimate that 10 percent of America's seniors experience some kind of abuse and neglect, although it's generally agreed that incidents are under-identified and under-reported. For example, the New York State Elder Abuse Prevalence Study found that for every case known to programs and agencies, 24 were unknown.
Improving community involvement and social engagement for seniors is one way to combat this problem. Senior Corps volunteers educate their peers and caregivers about how to recognize fraud and abuse as well as techniques to protect themselves from becoming victims of the various types of frauds and schemes.
Our Senior Companions, who perform the most one-on-one visits, are specially trained to recognize the signs of elder abuse, but all Senior Corps volunteers learn how to engage in this oversight to identify concerns that may go undetected in their communities.
In 2018, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Senior Corps program announced a partnership with U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Elder Justice Initiative to help stop those who would defraud America’s seniors.
The DOJ initiative is designed to support and coordinate the department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial fraud and scams that target our elders. We have identified 157 RSVP and Senior Companion projects that devote a portion of their grant-supported activities to Elder Justice initiatives through the prevention and detection of financial scams and other elder abuses.
Senior Corps' volunteers provide this valuable service in communities all across America, and we thank them for their efforts.
In service,
CNCS Office of External Affairs
Editor's note: By clicking the links below, you may be connecting to websites created by parties other than the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The CNCS Office of External Affairs provides links to these stories because they contain information that may be useful or interesting to the national service and volunteering community. These links are for reference only, and CNCS does not endorse the individuals or organizations associated with these links, and cannot attest to the accuracy of the information provided by websites outside of our control.
(Editor's Note: Take time to read this fantastic story about VISTA alumna Eula Hall who opened a health clinic in 1973 to help residents of rural Kentucky and is still going strong at 91.) Six of Eula Hall’s 10 full siblings lived into adulthood. Her family was among the more fortunate. Growing up in rural Appalachian Kentucky, Eula not only witnessed poverty; she lived it. She remembers regularly seeing children with staph infections that would peel their skin away. Her mother knew to use disinfectant, Eula recalls today, seated at the command post of the health care clinic she founded in the little town of Grethel on the banks of Mud Creek.
With the Arkansas River now below flood stage, City of Little Rock Departments of Parks and Recreation and Public Works have turned efforts to clean-up and repair of streets and nearly 1,300 acres of park land. With the overwhelming response from Little Rock residents to assist neighbors in need, the City of Little Rock has partnered with Volunteer Arkansas, a project of AmeriCorps, to compile a list of volunteers to assist with cleanup and recovery in the coming weeks. Unlike after a tornado disaster, volunteer needs after a flood may not manifest for weeks.
Smoke and ash swirled into the air Thursday on state Department of Natural Resources land north of Hamilton, WA, obscuring the sky. Chain saws buzzed and radios crackled as firefighters dug lines and watched for spot fires. Thursday’s fire was lit intentionally for training purposes, but the threat of wildfires — and the need for on-the-ground practice — is real. Natural Resources Fire Management forester David Way served as incident command for the training, passing down orders to about 60 firefighters, most of whom work for Natural Resources while some are with the Washington Conservation Corps.
Share It: Nebraska Blizzard Response Honor
   Each week, we provide a social media shareable for your networks. Hundreds of AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers have responded to disaster events including blizzards, floods, and tornadoes this year. Recently, the Nebraska Legislature passed a resolution recognizing our national service members for their response to a major blizzard that struck the Cornhusker State in March. Follow this link to learn more about this story on the National Service Blog. And click the buttons above to spread the word through your social media networks.
Arizona Daily Star, Arizona
(Editor's note: Here's about another great story that highlights an underreported issue and how an AmeriCorps program helps address it. ) Janessa De La Cruz is employed, finishing school and dreaming big in spite of the systems in place to help her, not because of them. And that’s what the Pima County Juvenile Court Center staff who work with youths — ones like De La Cruz who were abused or neglected and then get arrested — are trying to change. De La Cruz, who turned 18 in March, was what’s referred to in court lingo as a crossover youth. These are the kids who pick up a delinquency case after first walking into the court as victims of neglect or abuse.
Office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins
U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, and Angus King (I-ME) announced that the Senate unanimously passed a resolution to recognize the over 200,000 Senior Corps volunteers who collectively provided 50 million hours of community service in 2018. This resolution was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 21 Senators, including Senators Collins and King.
“Throughout the country, thousands of seniors — including more than 2,000 volunteers in Maine — make significant contributions through Senior Corps programs,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement. “We thank Senior Corps volunteers for their efforts to address the unmet needs in our communities, and we congratulate them on reaching this significant milestone.”
MPR News, Minnesota
Cayanne Korder long believed college would be her ticket out of this rural factory town of about 16,000 people. As far back as middle school, she fantasized about leaving the state to attend an elite university. But she also routinely dismissed that idea as impossible because, she said, "I wouldn't know how to make that happen and my family didn't have the means to do it." When she got to high school, nobody disabused the ace student of that notion.
Dodge City Daily Globe, Kansas
It’s a sound that gets your attention and can save your life. The persistent, piercing blare of a smoke detector alerts people something bad is happening and action needs to be taken. The Dodge City Retired and Senior Volunteer Program decided to help the Red Cross in installing smoke detectors several years ago and they got involved in a big way. Volunteers went to work and put so many detectors in homes, the American Red Cross honored the Ford County RSVP with their Community Disaster and Preparedness Award on June 8 in Topeka. Ford County RSVP volunteers installed over 300 detectors by themselves. Since July 2018, they have installed 203 smoke detectors in 72 homes.
Lancaster Online, Pennsylvania
Rose Rodriguez, a program manager with the nonprofit Cities of Service, had only been in Lancaster a few hours Wednesday afternoon, so she was reluctant to draw definitive conclusions about the city's implementation of her organization’s Love Your Block program. But so far she had found nothing to quibble with. The level of collaboration and the enthusiasm she was seeing was amazing. “I think they get it,” she said.
Lancaster was one of 10 cities selected in 2018 for Love Your Block. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies through Cities of Service, it provides funding and technical support to improve neighborhoods at the grassroots level by, among other things, encouraging neighborhood groups and providing mini-grants for projects such as cleanups and facade improvements.
The Dallas Morning News, Texas
Being a volunteer grandma is good for you. That's what an independent, federally financed study reveals. It's also good for the little ones being nurtured by the Foster Grandparents. That's what the broad smiles on the faces of preschoolers at a southern Dallas Head Start center reveal. "The benefits really do work both ways," says Triste Vasquez-White, director of the Foster Grandparent program administered locally by the Senior Source, a nonprofit clearinghouse for programs that serve older residents of Dallas County.
WBOY-TV, West Virginia
The West Virginia University Extension Service Energy Express program is one of the largest summer AmeriCorps programs in the nation. More than 500 AmeriCorps volunteers serve as mentors to children participating in the program. A swearing in ceremony was held at University High School in Morgantown for AmeriCorps members who will be serving as mentors and community coordinators for the summer reading and nutrition program.
The Coalfield Progress, Virginia
Spring was in the air as local teachers and other guests gathered on May 16 to honor 27 Foster Grandparent volunteers at a special recognition event. The event, "A Spring Social: Seeds Planted for a Child’s Future", was held at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Big Stone Gap and catered by The Shack. Teachers with a foster grandparent volunteer serving in their classrooms contributed spring-themed crafts created by the children. These crafts were on display as decorations for the spring social recognition event. Several volunteers shed happy tears upon discovering these creations donated by the teachers and children.
Area-info.net
The Utah Conservation Corps (UCC) concluded a disaster relief deployment to Fremont County, Iowa in response to severe flooding on May 30, 2019. This deployment began on May 16 and lasted two weeks. During that two-week period, the nine-person UCC crew served more than 1,100 hours. UCC AmeriCorps members mucked and gutted three structures, cleared 59 cubic yards of debris, sorted 7,000 pounds of donations and collected an additional 6,800 pounds of donations for distribution.
Isthmus, Wisconsin
The loud buzzing of the brush saw permeates Bill’s Woods long before the workers, including 21-year-old Dylan Gordon from Gilead, Maine, come into view. Gordon is part of the nine-person AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) crew assigned to a two-week project in Bill’s Woods, a 15-acre area located near Picnic Point in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. On this muggy June morning, the crew is removing invasive brush, like buckthorn and honeysuckle, to allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor so that native species — namely oak trees — can grow again.
Calling all AmeriCorps alumni who served 25 years ago! As AmeriCorps’ 25th Anniversary approaches, we’re looking for great alumni stories to share across our digital platforms. E-mail socialmedia@cns.gov to share your service story
CNCS National Day of Service Grants offer the chance to be a part of national service and do something amazing with and for your community. This year’s grant opportunity offers more streamlined requirements, greater funding flexibility, and the freedom to design projects that will have the greatest impact for your community.
Whether you are interested in the grant for the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, or both, we urge you to learn more, start planning, and apply. Remember, the application submission deadline is Wednesday, June 19, 2019.
Please help us spread the word and share this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) with your community partners, grantees, and affiliates.
Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business educates students to become globally minded, principled leaders who serve the common good. The Georgetown MBA provides a rigorous curriculum and experiential learning through unrivaled access to influencers at the intersection of business, policy, and international affairs in Washington, D.C., and around the world to prepare students for the global stage. Full-time and Flex MBA applicants who received the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award and are applying for fall 2020 and beyond will receive an application fee waiver and can be considered for the Georgetown McDonough scholarship match.
A matching scholarship for Segal AmeriCorps Education Award recipients is officially available to students admitted to the MA in Nonprofit Management program on the Antioch University Los Angeles campus, a recent addition as a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award Matching Institution. The 18-month, campus-based program is supplemented by independent learning and online discussions. Students participate in project-based, professional development activities, and engage in field work with exemplary nonprofits. Applications are being accepted for the fall 2019 and winter 2020 cohorts. To learn more, visit antiochla.edu/nonprofit or contact mgt.aula@antioch.edu.
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