Press Release: ACL Awards $5 Million to Community Care Corps for Program to Support Family Caregivers
Press Release: ACL Awards $5 Million to Community Care Corps for Program to Support Family Caregivers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
The Administration for Community Living (ACL) has invested $5 million to support Community Care Corps. This national volunteer program assists family caregivers, older adults, and individuals with disabilities age 18 and older. This program is poised to profoundly empower individuals to maintain their independence and live with dignity within their communities.
The Role of Volunteers in Supporting Caregivers
By tapping into the power of community, this program recognizes volunteers’ critical role in supporting the well-being of older adults, individuals with disabilities, and family caregivers. These volunteers will provide a range of services, from companionship and transportation to household assistance and respite care, ensuring that family caregivers can access the resources they need to continue their invaluable work.
Expansion of ACL’s National Strategy for Family Caregivers
This investment underscores ACL’s commitment to fostering a more inclusive and supportive society where older adults and individuals with disabilities can thrive with the help of a dedicated network of volunteers. The program also expands on the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers, which recognizes the lack of resources available to family caregivers to support their own health and well-being as they provide vital care to their loved ones.
The Organization Behind Community Care Corps
Community Care Corps is managed by the Oasis Institute through a partnership with Caregiver Action Network, USAging, and Altarum. ACL awarded the Oasis Institute the initial funding for this initiative in 2019. This second 5-year cooperative agreement will allow Community Care Corps to further develop, expand, and refine local programs to support family caregivers, older adults, and individuals with disabilities age 18 and older.
Commitment to Addressing the Caregiver Shortage
“Oasis is honored to continue the vital work of Community Care Corps as part of a second 5-year cooperative agreement. This work has always been important but has become even more so due to both the shifting demographics and the shortage of caregivers across the country,” said Paul Weiss, President of the Oasis Institute.
“As the need for nonmedical assistance among older adults and adults with disabilities continues to grow, USAging is thrilled to be able to continue to support Community Care Corps grantees at the local level in this important work,” said Sandy Markwood, Chief Executive Officer at USAging
“We appreciate ACL’s commitment to addressing the needs of older adults, adults with disabilities, and family caregivers across the nation,” said Marvell Adams Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Caregiver Action Network. “We look forward to seeing the innovative ways the new grantees will have to support those groups to maintain their independence.”
For more information, view the announcement from the Administration for Community Living.
Oasis Institute
Sara Paige
spaige@oasisnet.org
Caregiver Action Network
Nichole GOble
ngoble@caregiveraction.org
US Aging
Mary Ek
mek@usaging.org
About the Partnership Team
Oasis founded in 1982, is a national nonprofit organization that is active in over 250 communities and reaches more than 50,000 individuals each year. Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Oasis is dedicated to promoting healthy aging for older adults through lifelong learning, active lifestyles, and volunteer engagement. Oasis enables adults ages 50 and over across the country to pursue vibrant, healthy, productive, and meaningful lives through in-person and online classes covering a variety of topics including arts and humanities, exercise, and more. Oasis’s flagship Intergenerational Tutoring program works in partnership with school districts across the country to pair volunteer tutors with struggling readers in grades K-3 who teachers feel would benefit from a caring, one-on-one mentoring relationship. More recently, the growing caregiving crisis has steered Oasis toward development and implementation of strategies to support caregivers, caregiver families and caregiver organizations as a part of our mission to enhance the lives of older adults.
Caregiver Action Network (CAN) is the nation’s leading family caregiver organization. It works to improve the quality of life for tens of millions of family caregivers. These Americans care for loved ones with chronic conditions, disabilities, or diseases. CAN also supports those meeting the living needs of older adults. CAN serves a broad spectrum of family caregivers. This includes parents of children with significant health needs. It also includes families and friends of wounded soldiers: from a young couple dealing with a diagnosis of MS, to adult children caring for parents with Alzheimer’s disease. CAN is a non-profit organization providing education, peer support, and resources to family caregivers across the country free of charge.
USAging (formerly known as the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging) is the only organization that represents the nation’s 622 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and 246 Title VI Native American Aging Programs that serve millions of older adults, persons with disabilities and their caregivers. USAging is dedicated to enhancing the capacity of its members to: advocate on behalf of older adults, persons with disabilities, and their caregivers; take action to ensure that communities are equipped to support and enhance the health and well-being of older adults, persons with disabilities and their caregivers, and serve as the focal point in their community to connect people with home and community-based services.
