$8,500 grant to fund community assistance team

MANCHESTER — UR Community Cares aims to create a national nonprofit to support older adults and disabled people directly in their homes as they are “aging in place.”

The agency has received eight grants from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and recently won $8,500 from Families Helping Families to begin a Clinton Community Assistance Team.

“Aging is not a disease, but it is going to be a national crisis as 10,000 people are turning 65 daily in the U.S.,” according to a 2019 report by the AARP. The struggles that many older adults and disabled residents experience have been heightened by COVID-19, climate change and overall financial uncertainty for the future, according to a press release.

Many are experiencing barriers to health access to care, including cost, lack of time, transportation, available caregiver, and UCC is a free resource to help with a variety of these issues, the agency said. Since 2019, UCC has grown significantly during this difficult time due to so many people looking for help with a variety of tasks.

UCC now has participants in over 100 towns in Connecticut and growing into Massachusetts.

They envision a world for older adults and people with physical disabilities, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to have improved access to resources, UCC co-founder Michelle Puzzo said in the statement.

They are looking for investors, donations and partnerships to continue to scale. UCC is also thinking ahead 20 years to the lack of retirement savings, possible depletion of social security, less pensions, this generation not saving in a 401k, and other social/ economic issues.

For information, call 860-4304557 or email info@urcommunitycares.org.

Sarah Page Kyrcz / For Hearst Connecticut Media Community groups joined the Clinton Police Department for the kickoff of the Clinton Community Assistance Team program earlier this month.