Serving Diverse Communities Through Trust
May 16, 2020
May is Older Americans Month, and The Eisner Foundation is celebrating with stories from our grantees working with and supporting this population. Read about maintaining intergenerational connections remotely here and how older adults are giving back here.
Los Angeles is full of diverse communities of all types – and nonprofits that serve them. Because many have been operating for decades, they’ve built up trust and recognition, as well as a deep knowledge of their community. Today as the Covid-19 crisis continues, that makes them particularly well-positioned to react quickly.
The Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCC) and the Los Angeles LGBT Center are two such organizations. Over the past few months, their established reputations have allowed them to rapidly and effectively pivot to new programs and continue serving their constituents amid distancing and uncertainty.
“The simple outreach from a fellow LGBT-identified individual or ally makes all the difference in the world,” wrote Rani DeMesme-Anders, Membership Manager, and Danny Gonzalez, Community Engagement Associate at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in a joint response. “From the top of the conversation, our seniors know they’re hearing from someone who understands and appreciates how they move through the world.”
Both organizations have a wide range of services, and therefore already had the partnerships and knowledge to adjust their operations to a new reality. Since March, both have been leveraging those connections to do a significant amount of community outreach, particularly to older adults, to assess their needs and provide regular social interaction.
In addition to initiatives like community economic development, tutoring, and clinical services, KYCC also provides affordable housing to hundreds of Koreatown residents, many of whom are older. When stay-at-home guidelines were issued, KYCC staff moved fast to expand an existing partnership with the Karsh Family Social Service Center to deliver groceries and hot meals from local restaurants. “A lot of Korean elders are specifically looking for Korean food that they’re familiar with, that gives them comfort,” said Katherine Kim, Senior Communications Editor at KYCC.
But while essential, a food delivery program can’t address all of the recipients’ needs. To make sure residents do not become socially isolated, the participants of KYCC’s new student journalism program K-Town is Your Town sprang into action. The program had been intended to connect the students with older adults in the community to interview them and document their life experiences – and now, that is being done with the affordable housing residents over the phone in English, Spanish and Korean.
“The youth have been calling them every week,” said Kim. “The first week they were a little nervous because they didn’t know what to expect, but now that they’re in their third week the call recipients are opening up.”
At the LA LGBT Center, outreach calls to older adults from their Hello Club serve as both a friendly conversation and an opportunity to get them supplies or services as needed. “When seniors pick up the phone from our Hello Club volunteers and staff, we hear profound relief in their voices when they realize it’s the Center reaching out to check on their wellbeing,” said Kiera Pollock, Director of Senior Services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “LGBT seniors are more likely to live alone and not have family support. And with social distancing restrictions, many do not have a family member to care for them. With our Hello Club volunteers and staff, we can provide that feeling of having an extended family.”
This connection and trust in the Center are vital to getting older adults what they need. One call recipient told her volunteer caller she had reached out to her local fire department because they were helping seniors get groceries. But the person she spoke to was patronizing, and asked why she had no one to help her. She was so discouraged that she hung up. But the volunteer from the Center, trained in cultural competency and best practices, was able to listen and connect the woman to the various resources the Center could provide, including grocery delivery.
At both KYCC and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, these programs are benefiting the volunteers in addition to the recipients. “It’s been interesting to see how the youth transform during this process,” said Kim. While some students had a grandparent or other close older adult in their lives, others had very little interaction with their elders. As part of the program, KYCC will measure how their attitudes toward older adults change with this increased interaction. Meanwhile, the students are also building interview and writing skills as they document their calls.
Hello Club volunteers, while not working toward the same goals of developing hard skills, nonetheless are benefiting from their efforts too. “The most frequent feedback we receive from our volunteers is the personal fulfillment they feel from having the ability to make a positive impact while all of us are struggling with so much uncertainty,” wrote DeMesme-Anders and Gonzalez. “This is a variable which our volunteers can control. Our seniors need the help; our volunteers are rewarded with the knowledge that community is what we still have despite social isolation.” In fact, many volunteers are older adults themselves, and are finding purpose and camaraderie as they call their peers.
Though uncertainty for the future continues, these programming pivots have given many organizations like KYCC and the Los Angeles LGBT Center hope.
“These challenges are real, but our strength as a community transcends everything,” wrote DeMesme-Anders and Gonzalez. “TheHello Club has opened our eyes to the extent to which we can rely on our community to uplift one another in very practical ways.”