Senior services organization expands its mission
Helping Hands of Yuma also seeks donations, volunteers
A local organization aimed at helping the elderly in the Foothills has recently expanded its services to include senior adults aged 60 and older in the Yuma area as they see a growing need.
Now, Helping Hands of Yuma (formerly Greater Foothills Helping Hands) is increasing its mission and is seeking the support of the community.
“Primarily, we wanted to make sure that we changed our name because we wanted to be reflective of who we are now,” said executive director of Helping Hands of Yuma Carol Brown. “We intend to work toward being able to provide all of our services to all of Yuma and increase our services as opportunities arise.”
“We are going to move our boundary lines and increase our services as we do get more volunteers and more funding,” Brown added.
Since 1996, the organization has been providing free services to seniors in the Foothills area. The program is aimed at supplying this population with assistance to maintain independence.
Presently, the organization has an active list of about 650 care clients.
“We could have thousands on the roll if we could take them,” Brown said. “I can see it doubling and then tripling since there is such a huge need.”
Free services Helping Hands of Yuma provide include transportation to and from vital appointments, grocery shopping with and for clients, friendly visits and calls, handyman help with minor home repairs and routine home maintenance, food bank delivery, social enrichment and community resource advocacy.
To better aid their efforts to increase their services, Helping Hands of Yuma is also partnering with Give65, a program of the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation which aims to help less fortunate and vulnerable aging adults.
From July 11 to July 13 for 65 hours, an online donation can be made to benefit Helping Hands of Yuma at https://www.give65.org/SeniorsatRisk or by searching Yuma in the Give65.org website.
During this time, Helping Hands of Yuma will be able to take advantage of a matching grant in the amount of $5,000 that is to be provided by the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation.
“We are also in the running for prize money,” Brown said. “If we were raise the most money for our category or have the most unique donors for our category, that is an additional $10,000.”
According to the Give65 website, if one donor gives five different online donations to the same organization, the donor will only be counted as one donor for purposes of the prize money.
The fundraiser is also meant to help keep the organization active for the hotter months.
“Throughout the summer most nonprofits are trying to reduce what they are doing,” Brown said. “We decided to increase what we are doing. We want to get them out of their homes and give them an opportunity to take part in something, to celebrate, to have peer-to-peer time and we are also increasing friendly phone calls and friendly visits.”
The executive director stressed that the friendly phone calls and friendly visits are a vital part of the services the organization offers to seniors.
“Lots of times they are very independent and they don’t want to be checked on,” Brown said. “But, we let them know that we are going to call during the summertime just to make sure they are doing all right and that way we can get a feel for what’s happening at their home.”
Additionally, social engagement can be particularly critical during the summer for seniors, she stated.
“Our fundraiser is actually in line with what we are doing right now in increasing our services. We are focusing on the social enrichment portion of what we do for our at risk seniors. As you can imagine, during the summertime they lose a lot of contact-a lot of their friends are winter visitors and they leave. They can stay in a very isolated state if there isn’t someone encouraging them to come out and checking on them.”
Along with monetary donations for the fundraiser, Helping Hands of Yuma’s need for volunteers is ever growing.
“There is no limit on how you can volunteer,” Brown said. “I would say those that want to volunteer their time and they want to be a hero — they are going to be that volunteer transporter who’s willing to pick that senior up and take them to that critical appointment. Without those volunteers doing those things, we would have so many seniors that would be in very serious trouble. We would love to see people partner with us in any capacity, and we welcome any ideas on how to serve our seniors and how to fundraise.”
Those receiving services can also lend a helping hand, she added.
“Seniors can serve even when they need a bit of help themselves!”
For more information on Helping Hands of Yuma, visit helpingyuma.org or call 928-305-9974.