ANNUAL REPORT ▪ 2011 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT What a great year this has been for Heights and Hills. All year long, we have been celebrating our 40th year of providing outstanding service to Brooklyn’s older adults. For those of you who were lucky enough to attend our Gala last spring where we honored the long time support of the Herman Goldman Foundation, you had the opportunity to spend an evening being entertained by Joan Copeland, singer, actor and raconteur. This fall we concluded the festivities with a Birthday Party where we presented the Mary Ellen Critchlow Community Service Award posthumously to C. Murray Adams. The year, though, has also brought additional challenges. The continued downturn in the economy has meant repeated cuts to the NYC Department for the Aging’s budget which translates to cuts in our budget. Heights and Hills is committed to providing exceptional service to our clients and community despite these cuts, and the threat of more to come. Brooklyn has the largest aging population in our city and as individual financial situations become less secure, the demand for our services will only increase. We are determined to be here to address the needs of our clients, their families and friends. On behalf of the board I want to thank our generous donors for their commitment to quality programs and services for Brooklyn’s older adults and their caregivers. Many of our donors have been helping Heights and Hills “promote successful aging in place” for our entire 40 year history. Their loyalty and the generosity of all our donors is an inspiration to the staff and the board. I hope you enjoy reading our Annual Report and I hope that you join us in our work this year by making a gift to Heights and Hills. Best wishes, ...I want to thank our generous donors for their commitment to quality programs and services... Dona Metcalf Laughlin President 2011 marks Heights and Hills’ fortieth anniversary. 40 YEARS OF SERVICE Who would have thought all those years ago, when a few rooms were rented out on the second floor of the St. George Hotel that the organization would one day grow to be one of Brooklyn’s largest providers of services to older people, touching more than 2,500 elders and their family members each year? Back in the early seventies, a group of community leaders and clergy came together to see how they could help the older residents of the community, particularly those living in Brook- lyn Heights’ seven hotels, to age with dignity and independence. That was how this timely, relevant and critical work started. Today, we have a staff of 25, serve 19 neighborhoods and are known throughout New York City as one of the premier aging service providers through the success of our case management, caregiver and transportation programs. And we are creating partnerships and developing new programs to enhance our core services all the time. The world has changed in so many ways since Heights and Hills was founded in 1971. What hasn’t changed is what Heights and Hills does everyday – we are still working in partnership with older people, their families and the commu- nity to promote successful aging in place. And our means to achieving that is still very much the same – with committed and dedicated staff and volunteers, we give elders and their families the tools they need to continue living in our com- munities and we work with our communities to become better places to live for all of us. In these 40 years, we have touched the lives of many thousands of wonderful people and they have touched our lives. To our many friends, we are grateful to you for your support, for partnering with us and allowing us to do what we do. Thank you for helping us celebrate our 40th Anniversary! Warm regards, Judy Willig, LCSW Executive Director OUR PROGRAMS NEW VOLUNTEER Heights and Hills has had a long tradition of integrating volunteerism into our PROGRAM Each year, Heights and Hills serves more than 2,500 adults aged 60 and over and their caregivers programs. 40 years ago Heights and Hills was founded by a group of vol- throughout 18 neighborhoods in Brooklyn including: unteers who were concerned that older community members were “falling through the cracks” Bedford Stuyvesant East Flatbush Red Hook and they wanted to make sure that they remained vital to our communities. We continue that Boerum Hill Farragut Remsen Village wonderful tradition today through our newly launched Volunteer Program. Brooklyn Heights Fort Greene Sunset Park Carroll Gardens Gowanus Windsor Terrace Many of our clients live alone and have no one to talk to, to accompany them to a medical appointment, or to Clinton Hill Park Slope Wingate assist with daunting tasks like setting up a computer, shoveling snow or Cobble Hill Prospect Heights changing a light bulb. While most of us don’t think twice about these Crown Heights Prospect Lefferts Gardens tasks, many of our frail and homebound clients can no longer manage Case Management | Our multi-lingual case managers help older adults better manage the activities of these things on their own. These kinds of tasks can quickly become daily life that can become more difficult with age. We help older adults remain in their homes, feeling con- overwhelming. While not life-threatening, they certainly can pile up and nected, safe, healthy and happy by: preoccupy one’s thoughts. • Arranging for in-home care and household chores, such as laundry and cleaning The Fan Fox Leslie R. Samuels Foundation awarded Heights and Hills • Scheduling clients to receive home-delivered meals with a grant to start a Volunteer Program. Betsy Guttmacher has joined • Ensuring clients are receiving the correct entitlements and benefits our staff to head this new important program and joins us three days a • Helping clients create a support system week. Betsy is actively recruiting volunteers to visit with our all-too- • Answering questions about long-term care and planning often isolated homebound clients and to assist with on-going and one- • Monitoring clients’ well-being over time time needs. All new volunteers are interviewed, screened and trained to engage in meaningful interactions with our elderly clients. Betsy works with staff to make the introductions Caregiver Program | Our recently launched program for caregivers focuses on providing services to and provides ongoing supervision and support to our volunteers. families who are caring for aging relatives and friends. Services include: • Outreach to inform the community about available services for caregivers Betsy has begun to develop an intergenerational component through the establishment of relationships with • Information and referral assistance local schools including St. Joseph’s High School and the Packer Collegiate Institute. Pet therapy is also being of- • Individual counseling fered through a collaboration with the Delta Society. Our biggest one-day volunteer opportunity is our annual • Support groups Thanksgiving dinner when we utilize up to 100 volunteers to ensure the day is a special one for more than 200 • Training and educational sessions of our clients who will celebrate the holiday with us through the delivery of meals to those who are home- • Respite services bound or at Grace Church in Brooklyn Heights. Transportation Services | Available to persons aged 60 plus who are unable to use public transporta- If you are interested in becoming a Heights and Hills volunteer or if you need a volunteer, contact tion, do not have a car and who live in Brooklyn Heights, Concord Village, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Betsy Guttmacher at (718) 596-8789 or [email protected]. Gardens, our convenient and accessible transportation options include: • A fixed-route senior shuttle NEW ARTS PARTNERSHIPS • Van service to selected locations To obtain information on any of our programs or services, please email us at [email protected] Heights and Hills recently began partnering with three organizations the result of which is three or contact our office directly at (718) 596-8789 anytime Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM or new innovative arts programs for our constituents: visit us in person on the 4th floor of 57 Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Museum of Modern Art NEW DIABETES PROGRAM The Florence V. Burden Foundation awarded a one year grant to On a sunny day in September a group of Heights and Hills caregivers pushed family members in wheelchairs provide education to homebound elders around healthier choices through the empty galleries at the Museum of Modern Art. In a special partnership with the MoMA education and life style changes to manage their diabetes. There are many tried and tested programs around diabetes department the group enjoyed the serenity and majesty of a tour on a day when the museum is closed. The education that present coaching, education, lifestyle choices, peer group support and testing to gauge whether group examined four works of art ending with an energetic conversation about a large Jackson Pollack painting the intervention results in a decrease in illness or hospitalizations for diabetic clients. 25% of our roughly 800 gracing the final gallery on the tour. clients have diabetes, serious complications, but are homebound and therefore cannot attend these programs which are held, generally in hospitals and senior centers. The following week the two MoMA art educators paid Heights and Hills a We hired a Certified Diabetes Educator, a nurse with a Master’s Degree and a passion for this work. Beverley “studio” visit and engaged the same group of participants in an art-making Harris-Casey soon discovered after meeting with a handful of the clients, that this idea of coaching and activity using the techniques of the abstract expressionists.