AmeriCorps; Healthy Futures

The AmeriCorps Community Cares program, hosted by Tennessee’s Community Assistance Corporation, provides outstanding service to tens of thousands of frail seniors and persons with disabilities across Tennessee. Members assist clients through direct, in-home assistance so that the residents can remain living independently in their own homes for as long as possible. Members provide light housekeeping, respite services, health and wellness activities, food distribution, disaster kits, and stimulating cognitive activities for seniors. Community Cares members organize health fairs with free mammograms and dental and cancer screenings for the communities they serve. AmeriCorps members arrange drug disposal days for communities so that residents can dispose of non-prescription and prescription drugs. Community Cares members also partner seniors with youth mentors and provide personal hygiene assistance to seniors and assistance in caring for their pets. All of their services are provided to seniors free of charge.

In 2010-11, AmeriCorps Community Cares' thirty-five AmeriCorps members assisted 34,973 frail seniors and persons with disabilities through in-home assistance in over 39 cities in Tennessee. This in-home assistance helped the residents to remain living independently in their homes and avoid having to go into nursing homes. In addition to maintaining the independence and dignity of the people served, the program also saved millions of taxpayer dollars in avoided nursing home expenses. Community Cares members also distributed food to 2,402 economically disadvantaged clients.

The Community Cares members further leveraged AmeriCorps resources by recruiting, training and managing 2,397 volunteers who provided 26,306 hours of additional service through supportive services to seniors and youth projects in the public housing communities. Volunteers engaged in activities for the Community Cares program that included: Meals on Wheels food deliveries, Second Harvest fresh food deliveries, respite services, house and yard work, pet care, transportation, and cognitive activities such as scrapbooking, walking clubs, visitation to lonely seniors, congregate meals in community centers, and planting and weeding flower beds. Volunteers also tutored in after school programs, engaged in games or other youth activities, organized block resident parties for housing developments, managed buddy check systems, and taught GED and financial literacy classes.

The AmeriCorps Community Cares program truly makes an impact on the lives of Tennesseans and deserves recognition through the 2012 National Service Impact Awards.