Take Five with Jvswag

Living in the moment. The fierce urgency of now. Time is a precious commodity to all of us and especially to homebound seniors. Many people are so concerned with adding days to their life that they can forget how to add life to their days There are ways you can make a difference, adding life to your days and others through Programs offered by Fremont’s LIFE ElderCare Inc. 180 Minutes invested of your time offers VIP Rides which links volunteers for Seniors who need assistance traveling with Paratransit in the area. You can ride along on the trip and provide needed door to door assistance for medical appointments or other errands. This can also provide wonderful moments and a chance to make someone’s day. The average number of monthly trips is over 400. 80% were for medical appointments. 120 Minutes of your time a week and you can be part of the Friendly Visitor’s which matches isolated seniors with a volunteer who spends two hours a week enjoying each other’s company. Watching a movie,...

Do a newsletter by email, two pages. Send out monthly. Hard Copy Newsletter. 8-12 pages. 4X a year. Work with development on fundraising PR, assist with tasks. Work and publicize events, suggest ideas. Speak at Community Events, set up other speakers and showcase programs. Develop relationships with radio, newspapers, TV, Chamber, City etc. Attract and keep volunteers in organization. Take classes (Media Alliance) to enhance skills. Highlight staff members to the Media, make them resources and be known. Research relevant articles, do clippings, keep files of Press coverage. Arrange interviews, spokespersons for media. Do bios of staff, have them log into facebook and linkedin for networking resources. Collect information and quotes, write news releases, media alerts, PSAs and blogs. Create and assist with placement of flyers .Coordinate press conference or media events.

First there was Jane Fonda, big, then Richard Simmons, bigger, then Denise Austin still bigger. Now it is LIFE ElderCare’s exercise program Get Up and Go that has people talking about it and seeing results. What is unique about the program is that it is for frail, homebound seniors, 60 and over in the Fremont, Newark and Union City area. Each year one in three Americans aged 65 and older falls and thirty percent of such falls cause injuries requiring medical treatment. Falls are harmful, falls are painful, but they can be prevented.” There are over 9,000 home-bound seniors in the Tri-City area that would benefit from our program,” Maureen Parent, Fall Prevention Coordinator sighs.” We are searching for them.” So far the search has yielded good results. LIFE ElderCare’s Falls Prevention Program was started in 2004 and to date 653 have enrolled in the 12 week exercise program. Progress is measured using industry standard post assessment. One client who was totally bedridden for 2 1/2 yea...

As my plane circled over London I watched an awesome sight. There was a magnificent view of the Thames River, the Millennium Dome, Big Ben and the Royal Albert Hall. I realized I was about to visit one of the most fascinating and historical cities in the world. I was there last April and seeing the sites in person that one merely catches a glimpse of in movies and on television can be breathtaking. Once on the ground we had to get accustomed to the traffic flowing on the left instead of the right. I noticed the cars and lorries (trucks) had right hand drive. There were so many things to see. The one attraction that daily draws over 5,000 spectators is the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Very efficient, very colorful, very military-plus it’s free to observe Other notable landmarks are incredible. Piccadilly Circus is always jammed with traffic, Harrod’s is the English version of Nordstrom’s, the British Museum has relics from mummies to dinosaurs and Westminster Abbey and th...

I believe every service organization should use a blog. Have your staff or volunteer post comments and have the links accessible on your website so they are within reach and can be easily read . It's good to have a place for aomeone to leave comments like was this helpful or I agree regarding them also.