FY22 CDBG PROPOSAL
CARES Pandemic-Related Programs, Services, and Outreach Engaging Low-Income, Marginalized Cathedral City Communities
A. COVER LETTER
1. Agency contact
Geoff Corbin, President & CEO, Cathedral City Senior Center 37137 W. Buddy Rogers Ave., Cathedral City, CA 92234, 760-321-1548 o, 404-759-8443 c, [email protected], www.theccsc.org
2. The purpose of the organization
Since 1980, Cathedral City Senior Center (CCSC) has provided for the needs of Cathedral City's seniors, their families, and caregivers. We proudly serve Cathedral City residents and seniors in bordering cities regarding their aging issues; healthy aging in place, as well as broader nutritional and crisis needs ; access to free motel vouchers, provision of emergency meal kits, grocery store, and gas station gift cards; and access to CVRM, APS, and a network of resources throughout the valley.
CCSC offers recreation, exercise, nutrition, wellness, social opportunities, access to social services, transportation, cultural and educational experiences that prevent isolation, promote independence, healthy living, and quality of life for older adults a nd caregivers.
Because area seniors face medical, nutritional, transportation, and financial challenges, we provide our services regardless of ability to pay. CCSC is uniquely positioned to provide services typically executed by large social services agenc ies and programming often offered by community center s—managed by a municipal parks department—to a broader, more diverse audience of seniors and younger city residents who makeup up Cathedral City.
CCSC is a one -stop aging resource and service center wi th more than 600 senior members, who might refer to CCSC as their home away from home; another 5000 older adults who routinely utilize programs and services multiple times annually; and over 40,000 people from across the valley who visit the Center annually. Further, thousands of seniors utilize social media, virtual programming (e.g., CCSC@Home), and call or email for resources, information, and referrals.
Where CCSC fits in the tapestry of senior centers across Coachella Valley There are fourteen senior centers or senior center operations and initiatives within municipal community centers in Coachella Valley. Eleven are publicly funded and managed by city governments, Riverside County, or the Desert Recreation District, a special government district. For example, Indio's new multimillion- dollar senior center facility was built and is maintained by the city, and the 1.3MM+ program budget is a line item in the city budget.
The three nonprofit senior centers are all in West v alley and border one another. The centers bordering either side of Cathedral City are Mizell Senior Center serving Palm Springs, a city of 44,000, and Joslyn Senior Center in Palm Desert, 51,000, also serving Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells.
Role in Cathedral City
Cathedral City is a diverse working city of 55,000 residents, with particularly high- need seniors. Yet, Cathedral City Senior Center faces the challenge of historically and significantly less public funding combined with a small but growing private donor base.
Public and private funding sources are on a tremendous trajectory but are insufficient to serve all the local seniors in need. Space is another significant barrier to growth, so the center is responding with site-specific community programming throughout the city.
Cathedral City is a minority -majority city . Nearly 60% of Cathedral City residents are Hispanic; therefore, we have a substantial Spanish-speaking population. Over 40% of our residents reside in low -income census tracts . In 2 021, CCSC 's board of directors committed the agency to a concerted effort to serve BIPOC and marginalized communities. For instance, CCSC has an agreement with the Braille Institute that added 42 Braille members and a host of low -sight-oriented programming. The center also provides ASL and language classes, including Spanish for Spanish Speakers, teaching Spanish reading and writing.
Modernizing to address the Silver Tsunami – Becoming a 21st century center for active living
CCSC is modernizing to become a 21st-century community center for active living in part because the so-called 'silver tsunami' of aging Boomers is upon us. By 2050, nearly 20 percent of the United States population will be 65 or older, compared to 15 percent today.
In the Coachella Vall ey in 2015, the number of people 60 years and older far exceeded state averages. The age brackets from 70 to 79 were 100 percent greater than the state average. Overall, 25.5 percent of Coachella Valley residents were older than 60, while the state showed 17.5 percent. In part, these statistics are on the rise because the valley is a popular winter getaway and a major retirement destination.
As the Valley ages, CCSC is preparing for the increase in the aging population, their changing interests, needs, an d how this will impact the senior center's role in providing services. We are asking the community what it will take to attract this population to the center, to be their gathering place and a vital source of entertainment, recreation, education, and arts. We want to provide the help they need to remain connected to their community, age in place, and keep active minds, spirits, and bodies.
Boomers don't see themselves at traditional senior centers. Yet, like all seniors before them, they need to remain ac tive, with healthy minds and bodies to remain independent as long as possible. Crucially, CCSC must transform to meet the needs of the vast age span and diversity of residents in our majority-minority, low-income community. CCSC will double its membership in three years with the community outreach initiative by attracting more of Cathedral City's Spanish-speaking majority. As the only city in the valley without a parks department or a community center, CCSC meets additional demands. CCSC's outreach initiative is essential for our strategic transformation and expansion into a 21st - century community center for active living.
Community outreach mandate: engaging marginalized communities Cathedral City's Hispanic and Spanish-Speaking Communities In 2021, the s enior center board of directors approved, and the agency launched a momentous outreach initiative to reflect better the communities we serve. Thanks to a generous private seed grant, CCSC hired a half -time Community Outreach Coordinator
Alma Gutierrez. Also, the board elected our new board chair, Luz Gonzalez, in June 2021; both Luz and Alma are native Spanish speakers forming a coalition of partners to help CCSC achieve its goal of engaging the marginalized majority Hispanic and minority communities.
Currently, CCSC is planning site-based programming around Cathedral City, including the library, Dream Home Neighborhood, apartment buildings, churches, schools, and other venues. The senior center has significantly increased its Spanish-language programming both on- site and in the community. Alma serves scheduled hours on- site at gathering places, such as Mountain View, Heritage View, St. Louis Catholic Church, and many others across Cathedral City , providing social services assistance and reso urces for Spanish speakers. [Notably, CCSC now enjoys an outstanding partnership with St. Louis Catholic Church, mending a vital relationship.]
Pandemic-related challenges
CCSC has identified three significant challenges enhanced by the epidemic: isolatio n, misinformation, and, critically, nutrition.
Isolation—a silent killer
The harmful effects of isolation are devastating. Necessary COVID-19 protocols and fear of acquiring COVID in the hospital and other medical settings delay routine care. Seniors with chronic diseases face a slew of complications, illness, and death.
Approximately 600+ seniors experience their most meaningful sense of community at the senior center due to losing a spouse, family separation, medical, financial, and nutritional challenges. Part of the center's mission is to prevent isolation; yet, isolation is the effective strategy to contain the epidemic. While potentially lifesaving during COVID-19, isolation is also unhealthy for seniors and potentially deadly. Loneliness is an impactful risk factor with debilitating health effects, including hypertension, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and lowered immune function. There are studies comparing isolation to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. CCSC first converted basic isolation- reduction programming from space -based, center-centric to virtual gatherings and th en planned a safe, phased reopening for vaccinated participants to attend programs by reservation, in limited numbers, and with safety and health protocols in place. Eventually, CCSC hopes to return to the senior community's living room to hang out, visit, play, and share food and friendship.
Misinformation—hurting marginalized people—CCSC access to accurate information The 40,000+ people who call or visit the CCSC website and social media receive vetted, accurate information about COVID and COVID -related resources from a trusted local source.
CCSC access to COVID-19 and other vaccinations (flu, pneumonia, shingles, boosters) CCSC has conducted three vaccination events on- site and referred and provided transportation and support to multiple community vaccination sites.
Hidden victims of the pandemic: Low-income, under-served, and marginalized communities Over 51% of CCSC participants are Cathedral City residents, and 49% are from nearby cities; they utilize CCSC's social and nutritional services dispropor tionately and heavily.
Estimates are that Cathedral City seniors and other residents compose 80% of participants in CCSC's services designed for seniors in need and designed to respond to COVID-19.
Also, CCSC is at the base of a 75-unit HUD senior housing complex, Tierra del Sol (TdS), operated by Mercy Housing. TdS residents receive a lifetime CCSC membership as a part of our lease agreement . CCSC works closely with TdS to provide its residents with a convenient and comprehensive array of intensive programs and services.
CCSC is across from a central bus terminal , near a significant homeless encampment , and in a low-income neighborhood. Our location provides a steady stream of low-income and unhoused people who participate in the Food Bank, request emergency food kits, grocery and gas station gift cards, motel vouchers, and require crises service interventions and referrals.
The pandemic's hidden victims require more service, not less. As just one example, the demand on CCSC for donated household go ods, clothing, medical mobility, and health- related supplies—which we typically sell at very reasonable prices in quarterly rummage sale fundraisers—has increased dramatically, and we now provide free. So, in addition to the significantly enhanced nutrition and crisis referral services we offer, CCSC now provides all the above items at no cost to seniors and their families in need.
Unprecedented agency and client need due to COVID-19
On March 17, 2020, Cathedral City Senior Center closed to public walk -ins. We pivoted immediately to CARES -specific initiatives, providing aid, relief, and security for low - income, marginalized communities to help prevent, prepare for, and respond to Coronavirus.
Before March 2020, the senior center invested staff time, volunteers, board leadership, and financial resources, which includes fundraising, branding, advertising, and other apparatus, to create community celebrations, increase visibility, visitorship, membership, diversity, community outreach, and a targeted campaign to raise an additional $150,000 by the calendar year-end. This focused effort in infrastructure, capacity, and sustainability was stalled, and time-sensitive objectives are now at risk.
For example, at -risk is the addition of a new bilingual staff positi on necessary to create Spanish-speaking outreach and programming. Also at risk is a feasibility initiative for program planning through community town halls to determine the need for new or renovated space and the resident agencies and collaborations to make that possible. The addition of intergenerational programming is another stalled initiative in jeopardy.
Due to COVID -19, Cathedral City Senior Center (CCSC) is experiencing an unprecedented need for funding to continue and expand essential pandemic services.
Intensifying the financial need, CCSC is simultaneously enhancing a significant new diversity and outreach initiative. CCSC will double its membership in three years to reflect the majority Hispanic community and minority communities , including indigenous people, transitioning from the traditional senior center model into a sustainable 21st-century community center for active aging.
Many participants are faced with additional economic challenges resulting from the pandemic, often manifesting as nutrition insecurities. Loneliness and isolation, a challenge for aging adults, many of whom lost spouses and friends in the pandemic, became even more endemic in the senior population. As a result, individual and community health has declined, and for seniors, mobility issues increased .
Participants require more social services to assist them with a range of needs to navigate this uncertain, dangerous epidemic. Consequently, the costs of providing enhanced services to more participants have increased.
The Center does not turn away anyone due to inability to pay (e.g., more than 50% of CCSC members receive scholarships, and activit y fees are on a sliding scale).
Nutrition
The immediate transition from weekly in- person food bank shopping and daily in - house lunch dining to grab-and-go and delivery requires full use, cooling, and intense cleaning of our facility. CCSC provides a limited shopping experience with pre-packed bags, allowing quarter -room capacity for a limited shopping experience to add cold foods, meats, fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, and bread to the dry and canned goods.
Volunteers assemble, stage, and prepare bags of food, medical mobility equipment, other health supplies, household goods, clothing, and lunches for pickup and delivery.
Fixed costs of keeping the facility operating (insured, cooled, sanitized, vans driving, etc.) remain a significant expense. Many volunteers able to work at the facility with regularity are also high- risk because of their age. Accordingly, we have purchased highly professional sanitizing defoggers and do our best to exceed public health protocols to keep them safe.
CCSC continued and exp anded its daily and weekly nutrition programs in FY 2021 , including multiple meals on Friday to cover the weekend. CCSC distributes more hot "grab and go" lunches than ever before, safely, to individuals who have been pre- qualified by the federal "meals on wheels" program (for which CCSC is a congregant lunch site.) The Center supports others who meet FIND requirements. FIND food bank pre-qualifies individuals based on need. The application process is not difficult; CCSC assists in completing the application. While seniors are CCSC's focus, no one in need is turned away, regardless of their age or qualifying status.
The Food Bank is open to those individuals living in the community's low-income HUD housing complexes in Cathedral City . Currently, most individuals reside in Mercy Housing Tierra del Sol development atop CCSC, and residents of other low -income housing complexes also attend. Transportation is an issue for non- Mercy hous ing residents, and CCSC is readying to receive a passenger van, a contribution resulting from Cathedral City touting the senior center as a community asset in their economic development work.
With our current aging van, and volunteers willing to utilize their vehicles, our nutrition programs currently offer limited food delivery if necessary. CCSC is poised to expand as the need expands. Recent additions to CCSC 's frozen food storage capacity allowed CCSC to provide more proteins to those in need.
FIND Food Bank provides the food for the Food Bank programs at a much- reduced cost to CCSC. Trader Joe's of Cathedral City weekly donates large quantities of perishable vegetables, bread, and other foodstuffs when the packaging is damaged in shipment. CCSC also receives weekly fresh food donations from the local Starbucks, Panera Bread, and the Grocery Outlet. When necessary, CCSC supplements food provided by others with weekly shopping trips to retail outlets purchasing proteins and
other food not provided by our suppliers.
On Saturday and Sunday each week, the staff uses the agency van to collect food from the various retail establishments donating to CCSC. A small army of volunteers congregate at the Senior Center to assemble the food bags and prepare the Center for the " grab and go " safe food distribution on Monday. Keeping the building clean and safe for these volunteers is of utmost importance, as is providing a touchless food distribution program on Mondays. A dedicated staff is critical to this program.
In 2020 -21, CC SC served 7, 400 low -income seniors and their families with nutritional services, including 4 ,081 through our weekly Food Bank, 3 ,194 daily lunches, and hundreds of holiday meals.
Friendly Connections Wellness Check Calls
Volunteers make CCSC's Friendly Connections wellness check calls daily and weekly to homebound seniors and others who need a friendly voice. CCSC recognizes that isolation is a significant cause of medical decline for seniors, so friendly wellness calls are essential. The caller can arrange for a CCSC volunteer to run errands, pick up medication, and do other necessary out-of-house duties, which the senior is incapable of doing. We know from anecdotal evidence that these calls can also be lifesaving, identifying seniors who cannot call for help themselves. This program is supervised by staff.
Virtual Program
Since the start of the Pandemic, CCSC has been developing a robust Virtual Program.
Launched in June 2020, CCSC@Home provides a variety of programs, including cooking demonstrations, exercise and fitness classes, programs from the Palm Springs Air Museum, an art 'painting' class with supplies provided through the CC Arts Commission and SCRAP Gallery, Spanish and French classes, how to use Zoom, travel series, natural history tours and a weekly Thirsty Thursday where friends and acquaintances gather virtually for conversation and camaraderie over a glass of wine.
We invested heavily in updating our capacity, infrastructure, brand, and reach as we launched the first phase to create a virtual senior center.
CCSC@Home offers an eclectic mix of online programmi ng by local instructors and sharing local, regional, and national resources. As the program grows, CCSC hopes to enhance the offerings substantially and reach and offer CCSC@HomeEspanol in the next phase.
With limited digital expertise, capacity, and infrastructure, CCSC online offerings have significant room for growth and development. CCSC creates a community of digitally linked seniors who securely talk with other seniors, make friends, and create relationships. We are teaching seniors how to: use Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook, take our local CCSC branded classes, use links to national content made accessible to them, use email and video chat with peers. They will be alerted to and become savvy to scammers. CCSC@Home bridges distances —it is personal, community-based, and keeps seniors safe at home but not alone.
This programming is designed to stimulate brains. Planning each day to see what's available for viewing or participation forces people to get up, dressed, and organized.
When funding is secured, the next phase will offer seniors who are part of the program
unlimited technical support by phone or online, plus Skype and email accounts.
Social Services
Partnerships and collaborations have been a foundation of CCSC's success and are integral to our goal of future sustainability. Important new alliances are in jeopardy. For example, the Joslyn Center provides various intensive wellness programs and services on-site at CCSC that would otherwise be unavailable to our members. Many CCSC seniors are unable to travel to other centers, so this new programming partnership is vital. The Braille Institute recently designated CCSC as Southern California's first low- to-no vision programming- friendly senior center, allowing 43 Braille Institute members displaced by closing their Rancho Mirage location to take their enhancement classes at CCSC and call the senior center their home as members through a co-membership program.
Due to the pandemic, CCSC enhanced collaborations with exis ting community partners, doubling the on- site, rent -free allocation of office space dedicated to embedded social service partners. We increased access to their essential work addressing the multitude of social service needs of Cathedral City, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and surrounding area clients.
CCSC continues to offer the services of Senior Advocates of the Desert, Jewish Family Services, Braille Institute, and collaborative programs with Mizel l and Joslyn senior centers on-site at CCSC to address th e variety of concerns facing our constituents .
Support services include helping individuals navigate complex and confusing public bureaucracies from which they are entitled to services, utility companies, landlords, medical establishments, transportation providers, and the many other barriers individuals face as they age. Our embedded partners offer much-needed relief to those facing an increasingly complex world, especially during the pandemic.
The cost to provide these resources is represented by the sacrifice of earned income from our minimal revenue-producing spaces, plus outgoing expenses, including office supplies and associated overhead.
Center Upgrades
In response to the strains put on the agency by the pandemic and increase in related services a nd programming, CCSC has focused on strengthening both staff and volunteer training and effectiveness. New accounting controls have been implemented, and reopening programs have been carefully planned in a phased rollout. The board has been enlarged and continues to grow to achieve meaningful outreach goals while meeting the increasing demand for essential services, requiring dramatically increased fundraising.
Agency efforts to meet the need financially
Loss of earned income typically generated from space rentals and program fees; suppressed memberships and volunteerism; postponed fundraising events (2020 & 2021 Pasta Suprema, 2020 Chili Cook -off, 2021 Club 40 Gala), and limited reserves all add urgency to our current financial need.
CCSC has not yet established an endowment. Our fundraising effort is small but growing.
Yet, our space, capacity, donor base, and public funding do not compare with similar size cities or with our partnering nonprofit senior centers adjacent to Cathedral City.
Currently, CCSC utilizes limited reserves to avoid disrupting essential services to the area's most vulnerable seniors. Many seniors, particularly Cathedral City seniors, face transportation, finances, health, wellness, and nutrition challenges. Over 40% of Cathedral City residents live in economic hardship zones, and nearly 60 percent are Hispanic. The senior center is diligent and focused on reflecting the community we serve and meeting their needs.
Utilizing volunteers and business support to effect significantly outsize impact DURING THE PANDEMIC, the CCSC volunteer operation began to transform from grassroots to a more mature, professional, self-sustaining program. Volunteers treat their duties with the same integrity as they would if they were paid staff. As a result, our small agency acts and feels like a much larger one. Volunteer-led staffing helps achieve CCSC's mission to serve more seniors comprehensively. With a large, effective volunteer contingent, CCSC has an outsized impact on our community compared to its budget and building size.
One lasting example of our improved volunteer program is our commitment to monthly Volunteer Forums, the first Friday of every month. Volunteers learn about and influence the agency's goals, ask questions, share feedback with agency board and staff leadership, and hear about upcoming events and opportunities.
B. STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS
3. Staff
The staff is composed of five employees equating to 4 full -time equivalents (FT E).
President and CEO Geoffrey E. Corbin possess a Master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership and 30 years of dedicated nonprofit executive leadership experience; VP of Operations, Victor J. Ide, owned an In-Home Senior Care Agency in Palm Springs which he recently sold to a larger company out of Los Angeles and before that he spent his career in Human Resources with several large organizations including Office Depot, Gap, Inc., Wells Fargo, and Charles Schwab; VP of Programming, Rebecca Ruffing, is a seasoned professional with recent senior programs and services experience from a considerably larger senior center; part-time Volunteer Coordinator, Patricia Graves, is a retired corporate executive with nearly a decade of CCSC experience; and Community Outreach Coordinator, Alma Gutierrez, is an energetic, enthusiastic bilingual medical professional dedicated to engaging Cathedral City's under-served communities in programming beneficial to them.
Agency
Since March 2020, CCSC has focused entirely on the prevention, preparation, and response to COVID-19. Seniors, many presenting underlying health conditions, suffer and remain most at risk of COVID -19. As Cathedral City's sole agency entirely dedicated to serving seniors and addressing agin g issues, we are witnessing that the COVID -19 pandemic is causing more problems for older adults than just sickness and death.
Widespread social distancing and the cancellation of routine medical care have profound and potentially devastating implications for elders. Isolation drastically decreases physical and mental healt h, negatively impacts nutrition, and delays decisions to s eek medical treatment—compounding existing chronic medical issues and creating new ones. CCSC is best-positioned to assist significantly more seniors in need with intensive and direct
interventions, prepare for the coming onslaught of need for essential services caused by the waves of COVID-19 infections and related financial repercussions.
These critical services incur considerable expenses - rent, staff, utilities, insurance, and supplies. With the safety of our senior volunteers and staff in mind, additional costs have emerged in keeping the facility disinfected, clean, and sanitary at a much-increased level.
As limited and controlled reopening mandated by county protocols, incurs costs for digital thermometers, masks and gloves, and other PPE supplies. As meat and other food and supply chain shortages occur, we purchase proteins in bulk instead of depending on FIND Food Bank and community donations of dry and canned goods. The agency proposes to use the requested amount to continue, expand as able, and m aintain the flexibility to modify or create new services as the pandemic and recession mature.
With funding at the requested amount, CCSC will continue providing the essential services detailed above. The senior center will continue vital staging activities packing lunches and food bank bags for curbside pickup, providing in-person services, picking up and delivering food and medications. We will answer telephone calls, provide information, resources, and make referrals. The agency will coordinate with embedded and other service partners, including Salvation Army, local churches, LGBT Center, and receive donations of food, clothing, household goods, medical mobility , and other health- related supplies for redistribution.
Notably, the agency can serve seniors on waiting lists at the requested funding level and address the additional effects of a lingering pandemic and recession. The senior center is an ongoing operation facing an enormous public health crisis and an oncoming explosion of new seniors in this decade. But with this requested funding, we will meet this unprecedented need and continue to operate and grow.
The senior center has no more excellent ally than the City of Cathedral City. The personal and professional commitment to Cathedral City's seniors is evident from each City department, staff, and City Council member involvement. CCSC greatly appreciates Cathedral City's numerous funding and assistance activities: contributions to garden construction, Economic Development donor prospect leads, assistance with a van donation, food, bags for food, attendance at CCSC events, and promotion of CCSC utilizing the city's massive marketing reach. The City's generosity is invaluable.
Other valley senior centers are fully publicly funded and managed. The other two nonprofit senior centers receive more public funding and have extensive fundraising efforts, donor support, and buildings/campuses. As a result, they offer a breadth of programs and services that CCSC would some day like to offer our seniors in need when space and funding allow. Thankfully, CCSC works closely with our sister agencies in the West Valley on several programs benefiting Cathedral City seniors that would not occur without their support. We value these collaborations.
4. SUMMARY
CCSC is capitalizing on unprecedented momentum to become a sustainable 21st-century community center for active living. We cannot slow down else risk squandering this historic opportunity. While we expand our funding base at a record pace, these next few years of investment will produce a new model for sustainability into a bright future for our local seniors.
There are as many senior centers in the United States as Starbucks coffee shops (11,000).
But unlike Starbucks, where part of the attraction is that anyone can get the same coffee at any store, senior centers are local creations adapted to distinct local needs. Today's older adult population is significantly different from the older adult populations of yesterday and tomorrow.
Today, CCSC is serving people in their 60's, 70's and 80's which means that our Center must serve people raised in the 1930s, '40s, 50's and 60's —a forty-year span filled with some of the most significant changes our nation has ever undergone. The musical tastes, political and social mores of individuals born and raised in these different decades can be highly diverse. Some were born when Social Security was created, and others worry Social Security will not be there for them. Some were born years befor e computers were invented, and others were among the first computer programmers. The variety of needs, experiences, and expectations is wide— creating synergies and potential tensions for a senior center to manage. To sum, CCSC will meet this challenge head-on. Cathedral City and CDBG make a sizable difference in the success and well -being of low - income Cathedral City seniors, their families , caregivers, health providers, and residents who are not seniors but are affected by the pandemic.
5. REQUESTED AMOUNT
One hallmark of a great city is its support of lifelong residency for its residents. Ideally, a city retains its citizens throughout their later years because a community with a range of ages and good "connectivity" among residents provides everyone a better quality of life .
In an age- diverse community, parents, children, and grandparents who live near each other often build deeper relationships and provide more effective support than is possible for more geographically distant families. Retaining current Cathedral City residents as they age is good for the town socially and financially. CDBG contributes to keeping the senior center operating and responsive to the most vulnerable of Cathedral City’s citizens.
In FY 20- 21, CCSC provided 45,412 services, from entertainment, recreation, and education to nutritional, social services, to phone, website, and social media contacts for aging-related information and resources. The agency has income and other demographic information for 600 paid and scholarship-recipient members, but the agency is unable to better account for 74% of our participants whose low income is evident but not available.
We know from their pre-qualification in medical signups, FIND Food Bank, and similar low- income programs that require the collection of income information that we serve a disproportionate under-served and low-income share of Cathedral City . We have yet to develop the means in- house to incentivize volunt ary sharing of ethnicity, income, and other demographic information with CCSC if they are not signing up as a paying member.
CCSC does not turn away participants due to lack of ability to pay.
Demographic Profile of Cathedral City’s Low-Income Seniors Total participants who experience a point of contact with CCSC 45,412 CC residents who experience a point of contact with CCSC 23,160 Total participants who utilize a repeat on-site service 8,279 CC residents who utilize a repeat on-site service 4,222 CC low-to-no-income participants who experience a point of contact with CCSC 17,138 CC low-to-no-income participants who utilize a repeat on-site service 3,124 CC residents over age 65 22%
CC poverty rate 20.1%
CCSC members over age 70 82%
CCSC members living alone 24%
Largest demographic living in poverty in CC Hispanic women
With the funding requested in this proposal, CCSC will meet the growing and evolving challenges caused by C OVID-19 and subsequent waves following our March 2020 transition to essential services and resulting changes in operations and programming designed to keep Cathedral City seniors safe, fed, and healthy. Total funding of the requested $152,862 ensures this city's senior center provides our area's seniors with evolving, tailored responses to the pandemic based on community need and a science- based approach.
ACTIVITY #1
Continually operate a physical facility to prep, stage, and implement all programs and services designed for low, extr emely-low, and no- income seniors and other Cathedral City residents, safely, with COVID protocols in place , and provide PPE for participants and staff
CCSC staff and volunteers continue to utilize the senior center facility to stage vital services fully: p icking up and delivering food, medications, answering telephone calls, packing lunches and food bank bags for curbside pickup, coordinating with other service providers, and receiving donations of food, clothing, household goods, and medical mobility and o ther medical supplies for redistribution to the community, especially homebound seniors in need.
These critical services incur considerable expenses —such as rent, staff, utilities, insurance, and supplies —but without any of the income derived from daily activity fees and facility rentals. Additionally, we must keep the facility disinfected, clean, and sanitary at a much-increased level and cost for the safety of our senior volunteers and staff. As we implement a phased reopening , we are incurring unbudgeted costs of digital thermometers, masks and gloves, and other PPE supplies as protocols mandate.
Food Bank, daily Grab-and-Go lunches, emergency food kits for unhoused and extremely low income, provision of gift cards to groceries and gas, access to MSW and other social workers, and the remaining array of essential and other services remain available during the pandemic.
TARGET—CCSC physical facility on West Buddy Rogers Ave is open to volunteers to prep for high-need programs and services with regular hours, M-F, 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and weekend staging, and open to the community regular hours, 9 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. M-F, with extended hours on Wednesday and scheduled weekends . Host health fair with free vaccinations (COVID-19, flu, shingles, pneumonia), COVID testing, and other health tests (e.g., blood pressure). Conduct vax clinics throug hout the year as appropriate and possible.
DATE—Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #2:
Deliver and provide meals and grocery items, safely, with COVID protocols in place.
CCSC is requesting funding to help expand our two senior nutrition services - the weekly CCSC Food Bank and daily Grab & Go Lunches. The CCSC Food Bank began in 1998
and provides over 5000 pounds of food annually to more than 400 low-income, unhoused, underserved, or food insecure families every month.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic required rapid transition and modification of CCSC services. Our volunteer force is composed of seniors. Therefore, CCSC followed and exceeded government health recommendations and protocols to keep them safe. Many of CCSC seniors have underlying conditions and have been sheltering in place as recommended. We predict that they will continue to shelter in place intermittently beyond government-suggested timeframes.
The second nutrition and hunger-based program provided by CCSC is part of a greater effort through Meals on Wheels (MOW) to provide nutritious, ready-to-eat meals for seniors in need. The MOW program, previously known as Congregate Lunch, but due to the pandemic has been changed to Grab & Go Lunches, provides low-income seniors and persons with disabilities with daily meals and relief from hunger. Utilizing volunteers and staff, CCSC provides an average of 265 meals each month and over 3,200 meals to a minimum of 43 unduplicated clients annually. CCSC purchases ready-made meals and frozen and weekend meals from Mizell Center in Palm Springs.
TARGET—Serve a minimum of 32 low-income Cathedral City residents with lunch daily during FY22. Serve 100+ CC low-income families with groceries weekly.
DATE—Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #3
Online activities for people who are homebound, have disabilities, or are sheltering- in-place
We rapidly moved as much programming and services as possible onto our website and social media at the start of the pandemic , adding to the digital content and video appointments as we gain the capacity to do so, on CCSC@Home.
We make automated broadcast phone calls to seniors with new health guidelines and up-to-date information on the CCSC. Through social media, we offer an evolving lineup of online programming ranging from personal growth and self-improvement instruction to entertainment, humor, exercise, virtual gatherings, and more. We are in the process of offering enhanced virtual programming with CCSC's regular lineup of beloved instructors, and some new ones.
TARGET Reach 17,500 Cathedral City residents, approximately 12,950 low -income (income levels will be based on volu ntary surveys and extrapol ation). Add CCSC@HomeEspanol programming.
DATE Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #4
Provide bilingual community outreach
A bilingual community outreach coordinator will spend 8- 16 hours weekly in majority Spanish-speaking and Hispanic housing, places of worship, businesses, and schools, will aid, make referrals, and develop and make available CCSC’s new Spanish- language programming to the community.
TARGET—Activity should result in a 17% inc rease in low- income Spanish-speaking participants in CCSC programs and services.
DATE—Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #6
Wellness Services
Before we suspended gatherings on March 15, the Senior Center offered a multitude of opportunities for seniors, including Excel at Exercise, catering to different ranges of fitness ability. Seniors receive professional instruction and supervision through a guided stretch, flexibility, and strengthening program lasting about 45 minutes per session. Our Wellness Center offered Aging Mastery, Brain Boot Camp, and one-on-one Positive Life Strategies sessions with a counselor, among other health and wellness programming. We embed various community social service agencies in free office space within the senior ce nter.
These organizations offer MSW counselors skilled and knowledgeable in the programs and opportunities for low -income seniors to receive food, nutrition counseling, help with legal, landlord/tenant, and utility savers programs , among many other entitlements and resources.
TARGET—Provide access to embedded social workers three days weekly, by appt. and drop-in, to serve more than 300 unique individual low-income CC residents.
DATE—Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #7
Reduce social isolation with wellness calls, and education and recreation offerings TARGET—Provide Friendly Connections weekly phone calls from CCSC volunteers to seniors in need of a friendly voice. Those calls involve a regular check-in and referrals to testing sites, tele-counseling, Office on Aging resources, senior citizens residential utilities discount programs, connections to our social workers at JFS, Senior Advocates of the Desert, Mizell MSWs, and in many instances, volunteers run errands, such as delivering food or picking up medications.
CCSC will schedule at least 40 weekly on-site recreational and educatio nal events throughout the week. Programs include exercise, education, and entertainment with programming aimed at all skill and ability levels so that no one is left out. All programs are fun and encourage participation. There is dance, music, knitting, and many other classes designed to promote activity and socialization. Language classes stimulate the brain and promote assimilation for non-English speakers.
DATE—Ongoing.
ACTIVITY #8
Medi-closet
TARGET—CCSC will maintain a free medical and health supply closet with electric carts, wheelchairs, walkers, canes and other mobility devices, diapers, and a variety of donated health-related supplies, available to low-to-no-income seniors.
DATE—Ongoing.
ADDITIONAL DELIVERABLE
Match public spending 3.3 to 1
Despite the loss of e arned income from activity fees and facility rentals, which abruptly stalled in March of 2020, CCSC will maintain its pr ivate fundraising to supplement the balance of services to Cat hedral City residents. If fully funded at $150,000 to provide services to the highest need and lowest income Cathedral City residents, then CCSC will match public spending with 3.3 contributed dollars to every 1 CDBG/Cathedral City public
dollar.
On behalf of the CCSC Board of Directors and our Emergency Preparedness/COVID-19 Response Task Force, and as the senior executive for the senior center, I sincerely thank you for your consideration of this proposal to continue serving low-income Cathedral City residents' increasing needs caused by the pandemic.
The Cathedral City Senior Center looks forward to continuing its decades-long history as a representative and public -private partner of the City of Cathedral City, providing essential COVID-19 response and nutritional, social, health, wellness, and recreational services and programs to Cathedral City's large senior population.