Sarah's Circle, Inc.

We aim to provide the following for very low-income seniors:
1) Affordable housing for seniors under 30 percent of area median income, ensuring they pay no more than 30 percent of their take-home income for rent

2) A meal program (lunch every day plus additional meals forthcoming) designed to meet senior nutritional goals and provide a safe place for individuals to congregate over a healthy meal and develop friendships and a supportive peer group

3) Health and wellness, educational, and social programming and referral services designed to help seniors age in place

Individual goals we track for participants include:
1) Satisfaction with housing, programming, and services
2) Positive changes in knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs as a result of our programming
3) Improvement in key health indicators as a result of participation in on-site health clinics and preventive medical education

Sarah's Circle provides the following key programs:
Affordable housing: 49 affordable housing units in a newly renovated, five-story, elevator-equipped building within a short walk to a grocery store, pharmacy, and other shopping and entertainment

Nutrition: healthy and appetizing meals five days per week. Our hot meal program is vital to those on severely fixed incomes and ensures that our participants get the nutrition they need to stay healthy, including those with specific dietary needs. Our meal program meets two primary goals: 1) ensuring the nutritional needs of seniors are met despite the challenges of limited incomes and/or dietary restrictions; and 2) providing a congregate meal site so that seniors who live alone (as most of our participants do) have a peer group to meet with each weekday in an effort to combat loneliness and isolation.

Health and wellness: a variety of programming designed to help seniors improve cardiovascular health, coordination and balance, muscle tone, and strength and flexibility. We also provide education on nutrition, disease prevention, symptom management, and other key health topics in an effort to encourage participants to better understand health vulnerabilities and therefore make better choices.

Educational, social, and skills enhancement: a busy calendar designed to keep our seniors active and engaged. Our programming is developed with input from those we serve so we will strive whenever possible to deliver meaningful opportunities that will improve knowledge and skills for a broad base of those we serve. Focusing on critical topics like financial literacy, current events, art therapy, etc., we offer a variety of activities to appeal to a wide range of interests. A secondary offering will be our new business center, which will be equipped with computers and staffed monthly by a volunteer who will offer group and one-on-one computer training.

Referral services: individualized goal setting and monitoring to help our participants hone the skills they need to remain independent. As our participants age, we observe and identify emerging health or social needs and work directly with these individuals (and family and friends wherever possible) to provide counseling and referrals to appropriate providers to ensure these needs are met.

Sarah's Circle has served very low-income senior citizens since 1983. In December 2018, we recently completed a gut renovation of our property, which has enabled us to shift focus from maintaining an aging building (which was built in 1917) to developing and implementing excellent programming for older adults as they age in place.

We have recently welcomed a new group of residents to our community who join many existing residents who were with us before and during our massive renovation project. We are focusing our programming on integrating all residents - as well as individuals who live in the neighborhood - into our programs and services. We are also exploring opportunities to develop more affordable housing serving older adults at or below 30 percent of area median income to help the hundreds of people on our waiting list and on waiting lists throughout the District.