Project Title

Caring Communities Resource Centers (CCRC)

Community

CCRC was designed to serve low-income older adults residing in both urban and rural communities in the Kansas City-St. Joseph area by focusing on six faith-based and community-based senior sites, located in the following diverse low-income neighborhoods:

  • Christ the King (in an urban, large NORC neighborhood)
  • St. Louis Senior Center (in a low-income, under-resourced urban neighborhood)
  • Seton Center (in a low income, under-resourced urban neighborhood)
  • The Palmer Center (in an older neighborhood in Independence, MO with a high population of older adults)
  • Ray County Senior Center (in a rural community, an hour East of Kansas City)
  • Northeast Senior Center (in a largely Latino urban neighborhood with a changing population).

Goals

The goal of CCRC was to enhance older adults’ ability to live independently and increase healthy aging behaviors by accessing health screenings, information/referral and care management services, chronic disease self -management workshops, and mental health services offered at the senior centers. By partnering with community agencies, these services were provided on a rotating basis, and CCRC was able to enhance the centers’ offerings and provide a “one-stop” approach to seniors for accessing services in their local neighborhoods.

Selected Accomplishments

Specific accomplishments of the CCRC project include:

  • Facilitating the formation of sustainable, ongoing relationships with multiple agencies to enable consistent provision of needed services (e.g. glaucoma screenings; Medicare enrollment support; exercise; and education on health topics such as cancer, smoking cessation, Alzheimer’s disease, and hospice care);
  • Developing unique programs that meet the specific needs of each senior center site;
  • Increased health screenings and monitoring of chronic conditions by a nurse;
  • Care management to serve clients needing assistance with understanding insurance, transportation, obtaining healthcare and health care supplies, etc.;
  • Providing a “Seniors of the Roundtable” mental health support group;
  • Implementation of an exercise program that resulted in increased overall attendance at each CCRC site;
  • Developing on-site health libraries and communication boards;
  • Assembling a Leadership Council that met six times per year to discuss the project and evaluate service;
  • Coordinating volunteers to provide services, such as a visiting dentist who provided on-site dental screenings and other volunteers who packed dental supplies to be sent to the homebound;
  • Disseminating a quarterly CCRC newsletter to partners, senior center staff and participants, and the homebound.

Additional Products

Other

The CCRC center participants engaged in numerous educational and social activities. Click here to see a collage of photographs that highlight some of the programming that was offered at the various centers.

Contact

Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Inc.
http://www.catholiccharities-kcsj.org/honoring-older-adults-with-care-and-dignity

Monica Burgin
Assistant Director Senior Care Services
mburgin@ccharities.com