Community Support Connections - Meals on Wheels and More Dale Howatt
The
story of Community Support Connection – Meals on Wheels and More is one of
compassion, courage and commitment, of vision, integrity and sometime sheer
GO TO PRINT EDITION
| bloody-mindedness. They are supported by
700 volunteers and 526 donors who provide 80,000 Meals on Wheels; 78,000 Care Coordination Calls and
Visits; 57,000 hours of homemaking, home
maintenance, yard work and snow removal;
16,000 rides tomedical appointments;
11,000 friendly visits and calls;
4,600 hours of community exercise; 2,000 community meals and over 1,000 crisis calls and visits. The volunteer time given would amount to the
equivalent of almost 35 full time positions.
The
services offered by the organization are:
- Meals on
Wheels including frozen meals for evenings or weekends
- Community
Dining, providing seniors an opportunity to share a meal and have social
interaction
- Transportation
and Shopping support
- Volunteer
drivers who may do shopping or act as an escort for a senior wanting to shop
- Gentle
exercise programs at 17 centres across Waterloo Region
| - Trained volunteer friendly
visitors how provide companionship and friendship to seniors
- Volunteer visitors to relieve
family members of their caregiving roles
- Telephone reassurance and
security checks
- Recruiting, screening and
matching homemakers, home maintenance workers and snow buddies
- A Crisis Program to help people
deal with various issues related to the elderly
These
services prevent more costly, premature entry into hospital or long term care
facilities. A few simple supports allow people to live in the way they
choose. Half of the clients are over 80
and living independently in their own homes.
The main 3 reasons people turn to the organization are: physical
limitations; nutritional concerns; and chronic illness. Community Support Connections – Meals and
Wheels and More resulted from 4 very small volunteer driven organizations
joining together to form a stronger organization. The organization is better able to make use
of resources than they could have individually.
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