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First
Senior Recources Information Day organized in Fremont Gurdwara Sahib
WSN Network
FREMONT: Notwithstanding the great track record of the City of
Fremont Human services department
of partnering with community organizations in serving older adults,
a significant number of seniors remained underserved due to lack of
awareness about services, physical isolation, inability to speak
English, and cultural barriers.
In March 2007, the City of
Fremont Human Services Department was one of only three applicants
nationwide to be awarded a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF). The RWJF is the nation’s largest philanthropy
devoted exclusively to health and health care, and this case,
problems faced by immigrants and refugees. This two-year grant is
funding the development of a program
called The Community Ambassador Program for Seniors (CAPS).
The
CAPS program is a partnership between the City of Fremont Human
Services Department, the Tri-City Elder Coalition, and six ethnic
and faith based organizations. CAPS provide volunteer ambassadors
to serve seniors in their own communities, in their own language,
within their own cultural norms and will do so where seniors live,
worship, socialize and learn.
The
six organizations are: the Centerville Presbyterian Church, the
Muslim Support Network, Sikhs Engaged in Volunteer Activities, the
India Community Center and the Taiwanese Senior Help Association,
and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church.
Each site recruited a site coordinator
4-5 volunteers and attended 32 hour training in how to help seniors
to access the services they need to maintain their safety and
enhance their quality of life. For Sikh community local here,
Jagmeet Kaur is the site coordinator. The training curriculum was
developed by collaboration between the City of Fremont, San Jose
State University, the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, with
assistance from community organizations including Palo Alto Medical
Foundation, Washington Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, Social Security,
Alameda County Social Services, Eden I & R, and many more.
Twenty-seven volunteers graduated and are in the process conducting
major kickoff events in their communities over the next several
months to do outreach within their respective communities.
Fremont Gurdwara Sahib held its first kick-off event on Sunday
December 16th, to disseminate information about the
services available to them by the Tri-City area with the
coordination of Sikh ambassadors and City of Fremont. It was well
attended by almost 300 seniors, although only expecting 150-200.
They started arriving before 1pm (scheduled time) and then they kept
coming, the 30’x60’ tent was jammed packed. Each family/couple
received one folder which contained a whole wealth of information, a
paper and a pen. Refreshments were provided at the start of the
program. As an incentive each family was also given an Umbrella,
keeping in mind the rainy season.
 The
speakers were: Suzanne Shenfil-City of Fremont’s Director of Human
Services Department; Mandy Zamani- Senior Case Manager at City of
Fremont; Monica Gloria- Transportation Support Specialist, City of
Fremont; Norma Braswell- Social Security Department; Caroline
Davidson- ONLOK(Senior Day Care center) Marketing Specialist.
Each speaker made a presentation in their specialist field which was
translated in Punjabi simultaneously. Many questions were raised,
out of which most common were ‘How to qualify for Medi-Cal, or get
benefits. Other questions were related to Transportation, such as,
‘Can seniors get driving lessons at a subsidized rate?’
There were too many concerns but not all could be addressed due to
lack of time. But this is not the last of such events; we are
planning workshops that would only focus on one topic, perhaps, Medi-Cal.
The City staff agreed to support any endeavors we envision.
To
keep the program interesting and focused, and involving the speakers
as well, they were asked to pick a name for a Raffle and present the
prize to whosever’s name was drawn. Bhai Ram Singh and Bhai Karnail
Singh thanked the City staff and presented them gifts.
Keep your concerns coming, as Kashmir Singh, one of our Ambassadors
said, to Mandy Zamani, ‘Mandy will be our guide, please expect tons
of call from us, so please be patient.’
Please call any of our four volunteers/Ambassadors
from the Sikh community are: Kashmir
Singh, Surinder Kaur, Ranbir Kaur, and Jagmeet Kaur at 510-491-6699,
for help and guidance.
19 December, 2007
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