You Area Not Alone: Senior Women Support Senior Friends Program

She is easy to picture: a frail, isolated woman, living alone or taking care of a spouse, homebound and lonely.

Senior Women taking part in the Women’s Fund Power of 10 initiative want to help women like this, by connecting her with a friend, an advocate and the resources of the outside world.

In September, the group awarded a $10,000 grant to the Senior Friends Program of the American Red Cross of East Central Wisconsin. The program works something like Big Brothers Big Sisters for seniors. Participating women are matched with a volunteer, who makes home visits, offering friendship and a connection to the outside world.

The selection was not immediate. Over the course of three late summer meetings, a group of 8 senior women discussed and debated a variety of issues. But, they kept coming back to the need to help those who are isolated and alone, providing friendship and resources.

The $10,000 gift will help the Winnebago County Senior Friends Program ramp up its volunteer recruitment efforts. Currently, elderly women are waiting to be matched with a volunteer visitor who can provide needed companionship. The program target: help twice as many seniors by the end of 2009.

And, that, is exactly what the senior women had in mind.

Submitted by: Brenda Haines, Women's Fund Board of Directors

Senior Women Target Outreach Effort

This group works fast!

After just two meetings, the group of senior women participating in the Women’s Fund ‘Power of 10’ initiative has identified the top need it wants to use $10,000 to address.

The target: Identify women in need and establish a personal contact to get them to the resources they need.

This on-going outreach will be targeted to help senior women, who are:

• 65 or older
• home-bound/shouldn't drive
• lives alone or is a care-giver
• proud
• private/introverted/scared
• beginning to find life a bit confusing
• has lost communication systems

The group believes these women need someone they can trust and turn to for help.

Listening to their discussion, it sounded somewhat like what Big Brothers Big Sisters does for students – but this time for senior women. It is part friendship, part problem-solving, part resource identification.

How did the women get to this?

Looking back, the idea came out early in the first session. One of the women shared that she is an advocate for breast cancer patients. She helps them navigate the health care system, finding the specialists, support groups and treatments that they need. Her job is to make the diagnosis and treatment experience less overwhelming. Because she herself is a breast cancer survivor and she knows the resources available, she is able to just that.

As the group talked more about legal services, hunger and health insurance—the Big 3 issues identified in the first meeting—it became clear that services for all are available. The trick is in knowing where to find them – and trusting someone enough to ask for help.

That’s where the gap is.

Now, the group is asking the Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation to bring together agencies that serve seniors and find a way to help seniors and their families navigate the complex web of services available. We’ll report back to them on what we’ve found later this month.

What an exciting idea! We’ll keep you posted…

Submitted by: Brenda Haines, Women's Fund Board of Directors

Senior Women Hold First Power of 10 Meeting

It’s amazing how much you can learn in 90 minutes.

Wednesday afternoon, the first Women’s Fund Power of 10 group got underway. Nine senior women (10 were expected, one forgot) met to talk about issues senior women face. In the next month, the group will decide how to give away $10,000 to help senior women in Winnebago County.

The group is part of the ‘count ME in’ project, in honor of the Women’s Fund 10th anniversary. Groups like this will give away $100,000 to change the community.

Meet these Senior Women
While the women are all seniors, their life experiences are different. They range in age from 61 to 73. Some are widowed, others divorced. Others are married. Many have children and grandchildren. A few have great-grandchildren. Most are retired, but a few still work full-time.

In the course of the conversation, they shared stories of survival over breast cancer, domestic violence and poverty.

“The problem is that women in our generation were raised to look out for everyone else before you take care of yourself,” one woman said.

Issues
When facilitator Terry Matousek opened the discussion to issues senior women face, the women could hardly contain themselves. Among the issues that they discussed:

• Transportation
• Home maintenance help
• Hunger/food
• Heating/utilities
• Prescription drug/hearing aid/eyeglasses costs
• Navigating the health care system
• Access to exercise equipment (costs)
• Adult abuse
• Loneliness/mental health issues/depression for those living alone or without family in the area
• Education
• Self-concept (What happens when you can’t afford a perm? Make-up? Hair color? A dress for your grand-daughters’ wedding?)
• Counseling on when to move out of your home
• Hoarding/pets

After discussing these and many other issues, the women agreed to discuss three issues in-depth at their next meeting on July 1st:

1. Food/hunger issues facing senior women
2. Health issues/health insurance gap (between retirement + Medicare)
3. Legal issues facing senior women

Women’s Fund Board and Committee members and donors will bring in information about resources available in the community on these issues.

Share Your Ideas
Have you seen one of these issues affect senior women? What was the issue? How did you address it? Or, were you unable to find help? If so, please share your story by submitting a comment below.

Submitted by: Brenda Haines, Women's Fund Board of Directors