Seniors over 65 make up close to 14% of the population in Long Beach, and many of them live in poverty, or live alone with little social interaction.
The good news is there are dozens of nonprofit organizations and agencies that are working to help these vulnerable residents with food and housing assistance, transportation, social interaction, health care and more.
Recognizing that senior services are often disconnected, a group of leaders came together in 2018 to meet and devise a way to work together.
The Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative officially came together as a network in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. When stay-at-home orders were issued by health agencies, this group rapidly responded to help homebound seniors.
Thanks to funding from the city of Long Beach Health Department, the collaborative continued to strengthen, and includes established groups like Gold Star Manor, Meals on Wheels, Long Beach Transit, Pathways Hospice and more.
Heart of Ida, which provides companionship and social interaction for low-income seniors, became the administering nonprofit agency. The collaborative meets at least quarterly with networking, presentations and more and includes 225 professionals who are subscribed to a regular newsletter that highlights services, education, events and more.
This year, however, funding from the city was not renewed, leaving the collaborative to search for other funding sources to continue its work.
Long Beach Community Action Partnership (LB CAP) funded the collaborative through the end of this calendar year, and we received a very generous grant from the Clancy Foundation in Long Beach to devise new ways to support this work.
Long-term, we will need support from the community or local foundations to keep the momentum of this growing network moving forward.
Please consider a donation to help support our seniors! Donations are processed through the Heart of Ida, the fiscal sponsor of the Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative. Checks can be made payable to the Heart of Ida (1150 E. Fourth St., Long Beach CA 90802), with a note indicating that you want to support the collaborative.
To learn more, visit us here, sign up for our newsletter here, or give us a call at (562) 570-3548.
Together, we can make a difference in the lives of seniors who have given so much to us!
This post was made possible by a generous grant from Mike Murchison and the Clancy Foundation.
