Have you ever thought about how you would cope if you didn’t own a car or couldn’t drive? Answering this question in southern California, the epicenter of “car culture,” is very different from places like New York City, where public transportation is widely available. Now imagine if you or your family member is living with dementia. The hurdles to getting around become even more formidable if not insurmountable. Thanks to a Women’s Fund grant, Friendship Adult Day Care Center’s new transportation program offers a positive and supportive antidote to isolation and depression.
The award of $82,500 will help address the loss of the daycare center’s former transportation services. Such access is essential for people with dementia – and their caretakers – if they are to live their lives with dignity, compassion, safety, and fun. Without the programs of the Friendship Center, many family caregivers would miss time at work or forego other responsibilities to care for their loved ones or drive them to the Center.
Since its founding as a nonprofit in 1976, the Friendship Center has developed its program in sync with a best-practices model for those living with dementia. Transportation provides the conduit to more than a physical place; it’s also independence, connection, and care. More than 90% of program participants cannot use what little public transportation is available in our area due to their cognitive and physical impairments. It will now be possible for about half of Friendship’s low-income members to get to its original location in Montecito or new satellite program in Carpinteria.
Specifically, the grant provides salaries for a full-time Transportation Coordinator and a part-time driver. Together, the coordinator and driver will facilitate transportation for about 125 low-income seniors, about half the Friendship Center’s members. Perhaps unsurprisingly, about 90% of the primary caregivers for these individuals are women. Access to the daycare center eases the burden on these caregivers considerably, allowing them to continue working or fulfilling other responsibilities while offering peace of mind that their loved ones will spend quality time at the Center.
Kathryn Westland, Executive Director of Friendship Adult Day Care Center, characterized the center’s services as “Our programs are designed to restore independence in ways that … help people feel like themselves again.”
In her acceptance speech at the Celebration of Grants event this year, she said that “community is immunity.” She remarked that this grant represents access for some of our most vulnerable neighbors to a program that helps them “hold onto who they are … [and] to a lifeline; not just for themselves, but for their families as well.”
In many ways, Westland’s remarks capture what the Women’s Fund is all about: connecting individuals in our community who need help to various lifelines, supporting families of all sorts, and providing aid where it is needed most. In short, Women’s Fund grants underwrite a healthier, interconnected, and fairer community for all of us.