The Aging Together Partnership

For information, contact:
Sallie Morgan
540-825-3100 x3437
smorgan@rrcsb.org

Chapter 1: How did this Partnership get started? How are they structured?  What have they been doing?

Chapter 2: What Difference Did the Community Partnership Make Here?

Chapter 1: How did this Partnership get started? How are they structured?  What have they been doing?

I. WHY did the Partnership happen here?

The five rural counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock in North Central Virginia face a projected 100% growth in older adults by 2020. This large economically-challenged area sits at the very outer rim of the metropolitan Washington, D.C. region. The largest population center is the small town of Culpeper (15,000 people). Many older adults live more than 25 miles from the nearest hospital. People over 60 are more than 17% of the total population here, while the younger population shrinks as young adults leave for better paying jobs, which also reduces their availability as family caregivers. In fact, one in ten local elders is herself a caregiver to an older adult. More than 10% of seniors live at or below poverty level, while housing costs have skyrocketed.

This Partnership began with the goal of “honoring the needs of each locality while building a regional long term care planning approach that both supports and goes beyond what counties can do individually.” In 1998, a group of representatives from 7 agencies began talking about how, in the midst a growing population of older adults to serve, they all had long waiting lists for services in addition to funding challenges; and how they should be proactive as this population explodes. These agencies (including the Area Agency on Aging, county social service departments, and cooperative extensions) jointly funded a first telephone survey in 2002, which created a baseline understanding of the issues facing older adults here and which set the stage for the Partnership.

II. Getting Started: What Findings, Vision and Partnership Structure emerged?

The goal of this Partnership is to implement community developed strategies to improve long term and supportive services for at-risk older adults in Virginia’s Rappahannock Rapidan region.

Findings from the Data Collection process
Five Community Conversations engaging 500 people across the region found that:

• There is a lack of preparedness in the region for an aging population
• Long term care issues were not on the agenda of local governments and people were looking for leadership.
• Members of the community were ready to address the difficulties caregivers and older adults were having finding and affording supports.
• Transportation is hard to find when elders stop driving, adding to isolation in this remote region
• Older adults also cared about the welfare of younger residents in their communities.
• High housing costs were very challenging to a large population of low and moderate income elders.
• Few knew what resources were available to help and how to access them.
• Informal and affordable supports to help older adults stay in the community were in short supply.

Vision: “Our vision …is that older adults in this area…. retain their sense of place and community, serve and contribute to that community and are assured of help when needed from family, neighbors, churches as well as from helping organizations and a responsive government. All seniors are valued and are able to move smoothly through a continuum of care in a manner reflective of their needs and preferences.”

To address the issues that emerged, the Aging Together Partnership created a structure of five county teams focused on individual counties, and nine regional workgroups which work across the region on specific priority issues, all under the direction of the Core Leadership Group. A Regional Coordinating Council advises the Core Leadership, and convenes representatives of the county teams and regional workgroups for quarterly meetings to ensure broad and up-to-date communication. Overall Partnership members include county commissioners, local pastors, senior citizens, staff from schools and libraries, representatives from the United Way, aging service providers, the media, and hospital and housing organizations.

III. WHAT: Implementing initiatives to address issues.

The Aging Together Partnership undertook the following activities to move its priorities forward.

Priority 1: To expand services:

• The Aging Together Partnership created a volunteer driver network in Facquier County, for which funds have been received from the Virginia Department on Aging to expand to four more counties of the region. Freedom Funds were secured by the Partnership to hire a Mobility Manger for coordination of services and a Mobility Specialist to provide travel training.
• The Partnership coordinated resources to create a regional human services transportation plan.
• The Partnership collaborated in the development of Daybreak, a regional adult day service program now serving elders from 4 counties, and for which Partners are helping raise scholarship funds.

Priority 2: To Strengthen the workforce of paid and family caregivers:

• With Germana Community College, the Partnership sponsored two Health Care Training Institutes which trained direct care staff and their supervisors.
• The Partnership initiated an Outstanding Frontline Professional Caregiver Recognition award program which honored 13 workers for excellence in care delivered.
• A day to recognize family caregivers was designed, and county team members began linking family caregivers to support groups.

Priority 3: To promote wellness & life-long health of regional residents:

• The Partnership initiated medication overview sessions by local pharmacists for area seniors to check for drug interactions. They also helped the Rappahannock Rapidan Community Services Board and the Area Agency on Aging to obtain funding from the Virginia Healthcare Foundation for a free prescription medication program now being implemented and marketed through Partnership relationships in all 5 counties.
• After becoming aware of how difficult it was for emergency room physicians to know what medications elders were using, the Partnership created an emergency room prescription records program. The Partnership workgroup raised the funds to purchase and distribute ID necklaces and bracelets that contain prescription information.

Priority 4: To improve access to information and community awareness:

• Partner agencies applied to the Virginia Department of Aging to be the pilot sites for a “No Wrong Door” initiative.
• A Partnership initiative put a county resource specialist in each of the five counties to keep local businesses and providers plugged into the Senior Navigator information database. Four of the five counties are funding this role permanently.
• The Partnership used regular articles and ads in newspapers and on cable TV to educate the public about the impact of the region’s aging population and the resources now available.
• Volunteerism became a focus through the first regional multi-media recruitment campaign: “Together we can.”

Priority 5: To sustain the community’s ability to work collaboratively:

• The Partnership made a commitment to hold ongoing annual “community conversations” to inform about progress so far and to learn about emerging issues.
• Buy-in from all five counties and match support from local governments, hospitals, banks, community groups and service providers enabled the Partnership to continue focusing the region on the impact of its growing aging population.
• The Virginia legislature just mandated 2 years of funding at $100,000 a year to support the Partnership and its development as a potential model for other regions of the state.

Chapter 2: What Difference Did the Community Partnership Make Here? 
The Aging Together Partnership of Culpeper, Virginia

An interview between Sallie Morgan, Project Director of the Aging Together Partnership; Chris Miller, Project Manager; and Phyllis Bailey, Senior Information Manager of the National Program Office of the Community Partnerships for Older Adults; Portland, Maine on November 4, 2008 and updated February 18, 2009.

What Difference Has Working in Partnership Made in your Community?
Feedback from our partners indicates that the most profound change in our community has been the increased use of collaboration and partnership.  That is now the new standard for doing business.  Individuals and organizations, local government and businesses look to Aging Together as the neutral location where they can go to find like minded partners to support their work. 

• One place you can see the impact is in transportation planning and development.
• The government requires the development of a coordinated human services transportation plan.
• The Aging Together Partnership helped our regional planning commission bring people together using Aging Together’s existing networks and Aging Together provided financial assistance for staff of the commission to bring together the pieces of this plan.
• The local Consolidated Human Services Transportation plan was cited as a model by the state office on transportation & the national consultants hired to assist with the process.
• With almost no public transportation except a single circuit route in each of the three largest towns, we have had to work on both the local and regional levels at same time.
• The Aging Together Partnership provided the platform to bring transportation partners together at a regional level, and at the same time our local teams have developed volunteer transportation networks. 
• As a result of this collaboration the region has received funds through New Freedom to hire a Mobility Manager to implement a region wide mobility plan and hire a Mobility Specialist who assists area seniors and people with disabilities in accessing the transportation systems and provides travel training as necessary.  Aging Together has secured funds from the Virginia Department of the Aging and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) to support volunteer transportation networks for older persons in all 5 counties of the region. 
• A current application for New Freedom funds which has received preliminary support from VDRPT would create a public transportation route from Culpeper to Charlottesville for medical appointments.  Culpeper Hospital and the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville would work together to schedule appointments to coincide with the times of this route.  Transportation feeder routes, public and volunteer, would link people in outlying counties to the main route.

How Does This Encourage Investment in a Community Partnership?

• We realized we could not work on elder transportation in isolation of the bigger picture of transportation in the human service context – transportation for disabled people, the entry level and long term care work force, and low income people.
• The comprehensive mobility planning brought together many organizations spanning aging providers, disabled transportation providers, human service transportation, and people focused on workforce transportation.
• Being able to access the skills, resources and expertise of various partner members helped bring partners to the table.  For example:
• The Aging Together Partnership has expertise in volunteerism in general and with a successful volunteer transportation model, so Aging Together has taken the lead in building resources and support for volunteer transportation, resulting in the funding noted above. 
• Funds from Aging Together’s volunteer transportation grants will be used to create communications materials and branding that will benefit this new Foothills Area Mobility System (FAMS).
• The Community Services Board/Area Agency on Aging has expertise in sensitivity to the needs of older persons and people with disabilities so they were the logical partner to take on the Mobility Assistance portion of the plan.
• Because of the successes of this transportation collaboration public agencies were able to see that by working together all can be strengthened rather than worry about losing consumers or funding. All of the primary organizations that are now part of FAMS have received increased funding and community recognition.
• Planning is now beginning to assess the benefits and impact of shared resources between the public and paratransit transportation systems (office space, maintenance, training) and for the creation of a one stop call center for transportation requests. 

Did Working in Partnership Bring Any Unintended Opportunities?

• Through our regular research on funding opportunities Aging Together found out that the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging was offering grants to local Legal Services organizations.  Aging Together invited our regional Legal Aid office to become a partner and work together to submit an application to the ABA.

• The Aging Together Partnership wrote the grant and agreed to maintain reports as required by the ABA.  These funds will enable us to do attorney training locally so attorneys do not have to travel to Richmond or Northern Virginia for training on Elder Law issues.  If participating attorneys take pro-bono cases, then they can attend the elder law training for free.  In the spring, the Partnership and Legal Aid will create a consumer guide for accessing legal services and products based on feedback from seniors and caregivers in focus groups and forums.  The grant also provides funds for legal consultation for seniors and family caregivers.
• This whole experience has helped us to build a relationship with the Legal Aid organization.  Offering the training helps us solidify the relationship with local attorneys and strengthens the elder law services available.  This may also help us tell our story.
• Through this grant, the Partnership was noticed by the Virginia Department on Aging Project 2025.  Project 2025 is designed to increase access to legal services for older persons through collaborations at the state level.  We were invited to join their group of stakeholders. 
• We are helping stakeholders know what we do.  This also gives us a view of what is happening across the whole state. 
• This initiative gave us a chance to talk about our Partnership model; and to promote education about advance directives and elder abuse.  This may help us to develop some legacy giving to the Partnership as both attorneys and elders understand the impact we are having.
• The more our relationships grow, the more we hear about policy initiatives needing attention and can offer assistance in developing responses.

Have there been any other opportunities due to your Partnership Work?
Several opportunities have developed with local and regional health, wellness, and prevention programs with area medical providers. 

• When the opportunity arose for a grant for exercise programs designed to prevent fall-related injury Aging Together contacted our local hospitals and then helped to submit an application with the Area Agency on Aging in very short time frame.  The final grant involved collaboration between the AAA’s Senior Centers the Culpeper’s Powell Wellness Center.  While the grant was not funded we now have a viable model and agreements and will seek other funding. 
• Fauquier Hospital has also asked us to help them increase their involvement in long term care.
• In the past, we had courted hospitals and now the reverse is happening.  Fauquier donated money to the volunteer transportation program in Fauquier County.  They have a re-investment mandate and because of the Partnership, elder issues are up on their radar.
• Because of the neutral table, they can come to us, or we can invite them and we can bring people together.  The Partnership is viewed as a resource for information, for support and for linkages to others.

What About Sustainability of the Partnership – where are you?

• The Aging Together staff invests a lot of time researching and writing grants and other funding opportunities for the Partnership as a whole and for individual members or the county teams and regional workgroups. This capacity has not existed here before.  It will not be easy to continue doing this without sustaining the staff role.  We need to communicate the importance and value of this staff role as part of the case for sustainability.
• In December the Partnership held a retreat for Core Leadership, staff, team leaders and workgroup chairs and key community leaders to start looking at the value of the Partnership and which roles would be beneficial to maintain as part of a sustainability plan.   Thirty people attended and the retreat was facilitated by Kathryn Lawler.  Results of this group’s initial work is being circulated throughout the partnership and our community to gather feedback.  Core Leadership will then use this to craft a picture of the Partnership for the future that will drive our funding efforts. 
• The consensus of the retreat and feedback from the membership so far supports the belief that things happen through Aging Together that cannot be done  otherwise and therefore the partnership should be continued.  There is also agreement that staff of some kind will be necessary to make that happen.  Key roles being considered at this time include long-range planning,  advocacy, resource development, coordination of services and dissemination of information to older adults, caregivers, decision makers and others. 
• We are considering how to use funds provided by the Virginia General Assembly to support development and fundraising activities. 

Have there been changes in the capacity of the community due to the Partnership?

Many people and organizations have changed the way they are using and conducting communications. This is especially due to our exposure to the Spitfire communications training.

• Our Spitfire Coach, Troy, provided training for the Partnership staff and partners  We opened up his training to local community organizations across a broad cross section of the community. 
• Many people reported that they went back and altered their communications strategies. They told us they started identifying their targets, what their key messages were.  The experience made most people step back and plan, when most felt they did not have the time before, or had not thought about the difference it would make.
• The local Literacy Council realized that how you communicate your message is very important, even for a service that seems as obvious as literacy. 
• Finance staff of the Community Services Board/Area Agency on Aging, which has a vast array of services, went to the training also and may change how they communicate to the public.
• In addition to providing excellent and concrete information to existing and potential partners this training helped to reinforce the role our Aging Together Partnership can play in bringing new resources into the region that will benefit all.
• The Partnership has had columns in four of the local papers for two years now.  Not only does this provide a source of resource information for the community it has helped the guest columnists increase their skill in telling their stories and getting out their messages.  Partnership staff provide direction in setting up the articles, establishing timeframes for submission, and editing.
• Two of the Partnership’s communications tools – a new e-newsletter and the updated Aging Together website – are serving as a central portal of aging information and resources.  Many partners and organizations ask us to post information on these resources making them the key place to find out about events and local as well as national information. 
• The Aging Together Partnership Communications Advisory Committee invited editors of the local papers to a meeting recently to discuss the state of print media and how Aging Together’s members could support the papers. 
• The Editors noted the value of Aging Together’s contributions and columns and talked about the kind of content that would help them with both circulation and advertising.  As a result of this discussion the Culpeper newspaper (the only daily paper in the region) has created a Sunday Senior page. 
• The Partnership has developed guidelines for content for this page and is working with the paper to build content, providing support for the newspaper, getting out information to seniors and their families and highlighting the services in the area.  
• The newspaper is working on selling ad space on this page which will link businesses to Aging Together and its members.

Our County Team and Regional Workgroup incentive grants initiative is another way the Partnership is building local capacity.

• When the Aging Together Partnership received funds from the Virginia General Assembly we offered our county teams and regional workgroups the opportunity to apply for “Incentive grants.”
• This is how the incentive program works:  In each county, a  grant can be for up to $2,000 with a 10% match required.  The county teams can propose something that fits their area, should show team buy-in, and a plan for sustainability if they want the project to continue long term. Core leadership approves each proposal.  Project staff, primarily the County Resource Specialists, provide support for implementation of the proposals.
• We find this  has been a way to help the county action teams solidify, helped them to identify projects they would like to d with some financial support and has re-energized the teams.
• We did not anticipate the amount of partnership and collaboration that would occur as a result of their planning efforts. 
• The Teams and Workgroups have proposed a wide variety of projects:
• Intergenerational Transportation Safety Day IT’S a Day – focusing on safety for teens, infants and older adults will bring in partners including local service stations, the rescue squad, sheriff’s departments, insurance companies, and Civic organizations.
• Intergenerational song writing project in which a local musician will match students with seniors at the senior center to share stories.  The children will then write songs based on the stories which will be performed at a local community concert.
• Start up of a Senior Service Club at the local high school – students will have the opportunity to learn about careers working with older persons and will implement service projects for and with older persons
• Senior Prom – for older  persons throughout the region hosted by the team and the area TRIAD groups.  Other groups will participate/contribute including the Jr. ROTC who will be chaperones and dance partners
• Holiday Appreciation Luncheon for local community leaders.  No “ask.”  Just the opportunity to share food, fellowship and appreciation.
• Two Handymen projects.  One in collaboration with the  local Habitat for Humanity the other in collaboration with county churches and civic groups. 
• Tech Time for Seniors in which local school students assist in providing computer training for older persons and then maintain an email pen pal relationship to help the seniors retain their skills.
• The Health and Wellness workgroup is building a campaign to join first responders and adults services workers in identifying and preventing elder abuse, especially self-neglect.
• The Caregiver Support Workgroup will be using social ministries as a form of outreach for caregiver identification and training.

• Sometimes this does lead to challenges like who gets the credit – the Partnership or CAT teams.  So we are working on balance, keeping communication simple and pulling everyone in under the Partnership umbrella.

Is the economic downturn affecting your sustainability plans?

• Our plans are being tested by the economy.  In the past, local governments gave the Partnership modest amounts of funding but may not be able to in the future.
• The State legislature is not sure it will keep the second year of funding it promised to us in the budget. The allocation this year was cut by 15%. 
• We are not sure at this point that we will hire the development person we had planned because of these funding uncertainties.
• Partners have also provided matching funds in the past, but all of them, even the AAA (AT’s fiscal agent) are facing potential cuts, which may affect the level of support for the Partnership. 
• Partnership is more intensely viewed as in competition with direct services when times are so economically dire.
• The upside, if any, to this economy, is that it is forcing the Aging Together Partnership and its potential funders and partners to really talk about what Aging Together can do that is of value – what are funders willing to pay for.  In one county this has led to a discussion of the need for a much better coordinated and public source of information for older persons and their families which the county might be willing to help fund. 

What is on your horizon? 

• We will continue to build on the growing momentum of our volunteerism awareness campaign with a quarterly story focus/profile on different types of volunteers: ranging from a family, to older adults, to a work place and to young people. To communicate to people that there is no one face to a volunteer – all kinds of people do it.  The first quarterly profiles are scheduled to run in the local papers in March.  Work done by the staff to gather information on employers who support volunteer efforts by their staff show that there is widespread support by employers for this type of activity.  The five companies profiled all use varied and creative ways to incorporate volunteerism into their workplaces.

• We are also continuing our focus on caregivers & family awareness, continuing Caregiver Recognition month activities that include local government proclamations in support of family caregivers.  We are bringing the issue to the forefront and hope to impact employers by letting them know the size of the problem, the stressors of caregiver employees, and potential best practices & resources.  Staff have been working on a locally produced video showcasing family caregiver stories and local resources.
• Community Conversations on Aging are our key events each year; an opportunity to showcase what the Aging Together Partnership has been able to facilitate through our model and to bring together all parts of the community to share ideas for supporting seniors and their families.  This year rather than have a central theme each county team is developing their own “locally grown” conversations.  In all 5 counties however we are working on bringing in a broader and more diverse audience to again connect the community to building a strong place in which to grow old.  Areas of conversation so far include how to create healthy communities that support older persons and include prevention for younger people, in an economy where funds are resources are scarce how to we assure the most effective and efficient links to resources and information, and how can a community maintain a positive attitude/image of aging.

 Is there anything else you want to tell us about? 
New advocacy issues are emerging due to the economy.

• This will be a new focus – opportunities to leverage advocacy.
• We will need to respond to the energy and economic crises.
• The Department of Social Services Low-Income Heating Assistance program started last fall and were getting a month’s worth of referrals in one week.
• One county has set up a benevolent fund due to the need being observed.
• What we spend time on as a Partnership may change – perhaps to focus on basics.
• The Partnership tries to help people get together. We can put our heads above the fray.

Have you received any awards and recognition you want to tell us about?

• AARP Virginia – named us Partnership of the year in 2008. 
• We were awarded funding by the state legislature for two years. ($100,000 each year)
• The State Senate Finance committee asked us to come and talk to them about the Partnership model.  In introducing us, Sen. Houck said our work is among the best he’s seen in his 20+ years in the Senate.
• Senior Navigator’s Community Spirit Award ( 2006)
• Virginia League of Social Services Executives Spirit of Collaboration Award (2007)
• Commonwealth Council on Aging Best Practices Award (2007)
• The Administration on Aging named us a National Program Champion in July, 2008.