DonateMartin University Awarded State-Funded Grant to Help Serve Elderly East-Side Residents
$140,000 grant will provide gerontological support services
INDIANAPOLIS -- Martin University is among five not-for-profit organizations around Indiana who have been awarded $140,000 grants to explore innovative methods of providing support services to older residents. The predominantly African-American institution serves adult-aged learners and recently celebrated its 30-year anniversary. School personnel will partner with the Martindale-Brightwood area, a minority neighborhood bounded generally by 30th Street, Sherman Drive, 21st Street and the Monon Trail.
The other grant-awarded organizations are Fort Wayne’s Aging & In-home Services of Northeast Indiana, Gary’s Community Health Foundation, South Bend’s REAL Services, and Vincennes’ Generations.
The initiative, called Communities for Life, was developed through a partnership between the University of Indianapolis’ Center for Aging & Community and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Aging.
Each of the five organizations will receive $75,000 in state funding and $65,000 in technical support from the Center for Aging & Community, which oversaw the selection of the grant recipients. The center will support these groups in assessing needs and designing programs for targeted neighborhoods known as neighborhood naturally occurring retirement communities, or NNORCs.
The NNORC model begins by identifying geographic areas with high percentages of older residents, determining the residents’ unique needs, then developing community-based programs that help them remain in their homes and manage their own affairs as they age. Specific services in question could involve transportation, health care, legal and financial assistance, literacy, home maintenance, in-home services, day programs, and social activities.
The Center for Aging & Community’s Executive Director, Ellen W. Miller, said, ""These five programs will serve as models for the state and the nation in finding new and more efficient ways to help older adults live with the dignity and independence they deserve." The concept of "aging in place" is central to the center’s mission.
For more information, please contact Dr. Dennis Jackson, Director for the Communities for Life Initiative at Martin University, at 317-543-3678. Visit Martin University online at www.martin.edu.