Press Room

MILWAUKEE COUNTY RECEIVES GRANTS TO IMPROVE LOCAL SERVICES FOR OLDER ADULTS

The Connecting Caring Communities project will improve long term care and supportive services

Milwaukee, WI, Feb. 6, 2004 –  Connecting Caring Communities partnership was awarded a $750,000  grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to improve long term care and supportive services for at risk older adults in Milwaukee County. The four-year grant was awarded through the Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Older Adults program, an initiative created to foster community partnerships that will improve long term care and supportive services systems that respond to the current and future needs of older adults. 

Connecting Caring Communities partner organizations include:

• Milwaukee County Department on Aging
• Interfaith Older Adult Programs
• Community Care Organization
• Milwaukee Consortium on Aging
• Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center
• Marquette University
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• City of Milwaukee Housing Authority
• SET Ministry
• Helen Bader Foundation
• Faye McBeath Foundation
• The Milwaukee Foundation
• Our major health care providers and a variety of social service providers.

This initiative is consistent with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s longstanding commitment to support communities in which older adults can remain in their homes and neighborhoods and continue to live full, independent lives. The project will work to:

Increase access to services by effectively and consistently communicating messages to older adults and their caregivers, broadening the partnership circle to include residential developers, estate planners, insurance agents, skilled nursing facilities and others who market their services to older adults and their caregivers.

Improve the quality of services for older adults by creating a new paradigm in which issues are addressed and solutions are forged across stakeholder lines, beginning with the issue of sustaining and nurturing the professional caregiving workforce.

Create “elder friendly” neighborhoods by developing two distinct neighborhood pilots that will identify neighborhood assets and new ways to use resources for the benefit of older adult residents, creating in one an identifiable “Corridor of Aging Excellence”.

Fortify the older adult partnership infrastructure by developing a strategic plan that is feasible, measurable, and has the commitment of key stakeholders.

“There is no one-size-fits-all program that can adequately meet the diverse needs of older adults. Each of these communities understands that, and they are generating new approaches that address the unique long term care needs of older adults in their communities,” said Jane Isaacs Lowe, Ph.D., senior program officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The projects, focus on two groups of older Americans: those 60 years of age or older who are at increased risk of disability because of poverty, race or ethnicity, chronic illness, or advanced age; and older adults with physical or cognitive impairments who require long term care and supportive services. 

“Connecting Caring Communities” has realized that it takes more than a single agency or organization working alone to improve the long term care and supportive services system.  Connecting Caring Commu-nities is ‘pushing the envelope’ to develop solutions that fit their unique circumstances and priorities,” said Elise J. Bolda, Ph.D., national program director.
 
The Community Partnerships for Older Adults program is based at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service.  The Duke University Long Term Care Resources Program provides technical assistance for the program, under the direction of Beverly S. Patnaik.  More information about the Community Partnerships for Older Adults program is available on the program’s Web site at: http://partnershipsforolderadults.org

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.  It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

The University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service educates future leaders, broadens civic participation, and conducts leading research in: health policy, child & family policy, community & economic development, and public sector innovation.  The Muskie School’s three nationally recognized policy institutes receive more than $20 million annually to conduct research projects and public service activities in every county of Maine and every state across the nation.  The Muskie School is based in Portland and Augusta, Maine.