CPOA -

> > >

San Francisco Partnership for
Community-based Care & Support

Address
		875 Stevenson
		PO Box 15
		San Francisco, California
		94103
Web site
		www.sfhsa.org/SFPartnership.htm
Contact
		Bill Haskell
		415.355.6782

The Partnership learned through its early assessments and community discussions that housing, transportation, homelessness and long term care delivery were the four top issues for vulnerable adults and their caregivers. It was decided that the first three issues were citywide issues beyond the scope of the partnership’s work, but that they could have an impact on long term care service delivery. The focus was on the most vulnerable older adults as defined by low income, lack of informal support, frailty and minority status by race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Successes:

After launching a public awareness campaign, the partnership documented a 24% increase in calls to information phone lines, and reported more awareness of older adult issues/needs and long term care systems and resources among older adults, their caregivers and policy makers.
The partnership provided Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender sensitivity training to service providers – including nursing and assisted living facilities – to encourage more culturally sensitive options. This allowed LGBT elders to live comfortably in older age wherever they reside and use services rather than having to return to the closet when entering assisted living or nursing homes. The LGBT Workgroup also collaborated with mainstream organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Cancer Society to promote more sensitivity in service delivery.
In developing an African American Workgroup, the partnership found that many community members were reluctant to meet in government or official offices. So meetings were moved to more informal settings such as churches. The partnership and work group activities resulted in the development of relationships between formerly feuding agencies and a subsequent goodwill gesture of combining their holiday parties. They eventually also worked together on rehabilitation of a recreation center.

Real Life Impact:

The San Francisco Housing Authority operates 23 senior/disabled public housing buildings that are home to over 2,300 older adults, and yet there were no social workers to serve them. To respond to this dire situation, the Partnership -- in collaboration with the S.F. Department of Aging and Adult Services -- created the Services Connection Pilot Project. Among the goals are to increase knowledge of and access to services, increase services coming into the residents and residents going out to services, and improve quality of life for the residents. There have been lots of success stories as a result of the Pilot Project. After an elderly non-English speaking Chinese woman got more comfortable with the team, she showed one of them her major dental problems. The team member was able to get her a referral to a dentist. In another instance, the team convinced the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre to donate 24 tickets for two performances to a group of isolated residents. One person said, "I loved the play and would not have had the money to go otherwise."

We encourage the reproduction of this material and ask that you credit Community Partnerships for Older Adults Community Partnerships for Older Adults is a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation within the University of Southern Maine
© 2007 Community Partnerships for Older Adults

Strategic Planning - Strategic planning will help you create a bold vision for the future, strengthen new partnerships, forge creative and innovative linkages between stakeholders, and ultimately better address the needs of older adults in your community. A community-wide strategic planning process will benefit from the wisdom of a diverse array of participants and ensure greater likelihood of success.

Inclusion & Diversity - Including older adults and caregivers is crucial to growing and sustaining successful community partnerships. It is especially important to seek participation from traditionally excluded groups such as those defined by race and ethnicity, low income, lack of English language proficiency, and sexual orientation. While many factors can challenge a partnership’s efforts to embrace diversity and build productive relationships, receiving input from a broad array of community members helps to ensure equality in decision making and leads to long term care and supportive services that are more responsive to a community’s diverse needs.

Fiscal Strategies - Developing a fiscal strategy is an important and challenging part of improving the system of long term care and supportive services for older adults in your community. The array of funding options requires that community partnerships be strategic in their aims. This area of the Resource Center reviews relevant funding sources and provides resources to help you make the most of them.

Communications - Have you ever thought about how many times a day someone tries to influence you to think a certain way, to buy a certain product, to support a cause or to change your behavior? These days there are so many ways to reach you—from cell phones and Palm Pilots to instant messaging, cable TV and customized publications—that a reasonable reaction is to simply tune everything out. It’s a world of sound and fury.

Evaluation - While the success of a community partnership may seem self-evident, a systematic evaluation holds members to a higher standard, revealing more than what we see with the naked eye. This section offers an introduction to evaluation. It covers the basic principles of evaluation design and implementation, as well as some topics likely to be important for community partnerships working to improve long term care and supportive services.

Partnership Evolution - A partnership generally consists of multiple organizations and individuals working together under a common vision. Who will be in the partnership varies from community to community, yet the purpose is universal: to create a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship to sustain results that are not possible alone.