Neighbors Who Care
What do you need?
Eric Ehst, Executive Director
At Neighbors Who Care, we help homebound, frail and disabled seniors to remain living in their own homes. Our caring volunteers provide some basic services, such as transportation, grocery shopping, meal delivery, minor home repairs, caregiver respite, welfare checks, friendly visiting and more. What we do helps a lot. However, we know that it’s a drop in the bucket in fulfilling the needs in this community. We live in a part of the valley with few, if any, municipal services. Many of us don’t have access to things like Dial-a-Ride, Meals on Wheels, senior centers, caregiver support or a whole host of increasingly-important support services. Nor can many of us afford some of the for-profit alternatives that are available.
We recognize that there are a lot of unmet needs in our community and that there are existing resources out there that most of us don’t know about. That’s why Neighbors Who Care is undertaking a community needs and resources assessment. We want to find out what is needed in our community, what is currently available and how we can work together to fill the gaps. We’ve started the process by surveying our 500 volunteers and 1600 clients. We want to know how we are doing in meeting their needs and expectations and what more needs to be done.
This fall, we will expand the effort to include local businesses, community groups and the public. We haven’t yet finalized the survey or the delivery mechanisms. This is a heads-up that we’re going to be coming to you to find out what you think, what you need and what you can do. If you receive a survey request from us, please respond and give us your honest opinion. If you’d like to be included in our survey, contact us. We want your input. Our goal is to not only make Neighbors Who Care better, but to make this a better place to live for all of us.
Remember to put Saturday, October 28, on your calendar. This is the date of our annual fall fair where you can have a lot of fun and meet Neighbors Who Care and many of the other service organizations and providers in our area. Once again, we’ll have a classic car show, entertainment, games, food and more. The event is from 9:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at Riggs Road and Alma School Road.
Neighbors Who Care is on the cutting edge of providing cost-effective, community-based solutions to the challenge of caring for our aging population. Our volunteers are among the best and most caring people in an increasingly hostile world. We’d love to have you join us. For more information, go to www.NeighborsWhoCare.com or call 480-895-7133.