East Side Elders

East Side Elders aims to help seniors remain wherever they call home - we serve the senior where ever they are - in their house, assisted or independent living facilities, senior housing. We help them retain their dignity by providing whatever assistance they need, be it help taking out the garbage or going grocery shopping. We provide services such as transportation or snow removal at little or no cost to the seniors -- with the idea that if we can relieve the burden of having to find money to get to a medical appointment, we can help keep the senior safe and healthy. Additionally, we help family members spend quality time with their loved ones while we take care of chores such as lawn mowing and leaf raking.

Seniors find it hard to ask for help - especially when they fear that by doing so, they will be regarded as helpless and should be living in a senior facility, or worse, a nursing home. We encourage seniors to attend the monthly Elder Cafe and introduce them to our services. We make sure they know that we realize they may not need our services now, but they may know someone who does, and perhaps they too may need services in future. Caregivers may not realize they are under stress and are at risk themselves of becoming ill; we make suggestions on how we can help them get some time to themselves and let them make the decision to take advantage of our help.

East Side Elders has over 90 volunteers who assist in a wide range of activities and services. Individual volunteers provide rides, help with grocery shopping, provide escorted transportation, friendly visits, caregiver respite as well as help with the Elder Cafe, chores and other services. Volunteer groups help with larger scale activities such as leaf raking, snow removal and games such as bingo and scrabble.

Since 2015 we have increased the number of active clients from 129 to over 600. We have added programs such as foot care,caregiver respite and chores, served over 1200 meals and provided over 1000 rides. Since the population is aging at a rapid pace, we know that there will be more and more seniors requesting services and we can only hope that we continue to have the support of volunteers, funders and donors, as well as the community at large. We will continue to raise awareness of the challenges and joys of aging in the hope that we will engage more volunteers and supporters.