Rochester Area Community Foundation Awards Grant for Catholic Charities Senior Program
6/21/2012 11:18:20 AM by Stephanie Hamm
BUFFALO, N.Y., June 21, 2012 – Catholic Charities of Buffalo has received a $37,900 grant renewal from the Rochester Area Community Foundation to continue to support its Home Visitation Program, which provides weekly visits to homebound Genesee County residents ages 60 and above.
The funding is from the foundation’s Muriel H. Marshall Fund for the Aging, and was approved for a six-month period, with the funds renewable for another six months. Catholic Charities has been receiving the funding since 2010, when it began offering the Home Visitation Program.
The intent of the program is to decrease the detrimental effects of physical isolation, such as loneliness and depression, through socialization and companionship. Volunteer visitors provide assistance with light housekeeping, errands or recreational activities as part of an overall support network to maintain the senior in their community-based residence.
Since the Home Visitation Program began in 2010, close to 2,000 visits have been made and 88 individuals have been served. There are currently 24 volunteer visitors involved with the program.
“We offer a chance for seniors who are feeling socially isolated, due to physical or other restrictions, to become connected again through weekly social visits from a volunteer,” explained Mary Alexander, Home Visitation Program supervisor. “Sometimes the simple act of kindness that a volunteer brings is enough to enable a senior to keep living independently.”
Jennifer Leonard, president and chief executive officer of the Rochester Area Community Foundation, recognized the value of the program through the eyes of the fund’s creator.
“The Home Visitation Program honors Roxanne Marshall’s dream to support services that enhance the quality of life of Genesee County’s older residents,” said Leonard. “I’m confident that Roxanne, who established the Muriel H. Marshall Fund in honor of her mother, would be pleased to know that isolated older adults in Genesee County are no longer alone.”
For more information about the Home Visitation Program, call (585) 343-0614. The program operates out of Catholic Charities’ Batavia office, 25 Liberty St., Suite 7.
Other Catholic Charities services provided in Genesee County include basic assistance, counseling for individuals, children and families, Domestic Violence Offenders program, Our Kids: Parent Education Awareness Program for divorced or separated parents experiencing custody issues, and Preventive
Services for children at risk of placement outside the home.
Catholic Charities is the most comprehensive human service provider serving all eight counties of Western New York, with 70 programs and 61 locations. Founded in 1923, Catholic Charities also provides, without regard to religious affiliation, comprehensive counseling services for children and families, anti-domestic violence programming and emergency services, among other social and mental health services.
For more information about this and other Catholic Charities services, go to www.ccwny.org. Check out Catholic Charities on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ccbuffalo and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ccbuffalo.
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