Personal care attendant Vickie Jackson, right, visits client Marianne Dreyspring as part of Collat Jewish Family Services’ Personal Care program.Tickets are on sale now for Collat Jewish Family Services’ Hands Up Together event May 2 at The Farrell in Homewood.
This year’s event celebrates the 20th anniversary of the nonprofit agency’s Personal Care program, which provides services that allow older adults on limited incomes to continue living independently. It begins at 5:30 p.m.
Presenting sponsors are the Lucille Beeson Trust of Canterbury United Methodist Church and Medical Properties Trust. Event co-chairs are Anne Warren, who helped launch the program through her leadership with the Beeson Trust, and Robert Levin.
The Beeson Trust provided startup funding in 2003 that enabled Collat Jewish Family Services to begin providing Personal Care. The program began with 10 clients and has grown over the decades to serve as many as 150 clients each year.
Today, Personal Care team members visit clients for one to four hours each week providing bathing assistance, meal preparation, laundry service, and/or light housekeeping for an average fee of about $4 per hour. These regular, friendly check-ins provide much-needed socialization, in addition to helping clients manage tasks that they could not handle alone.
Esther Schuster served as the agency’s executive director when the Personal Care program was founded.
“The idea for the personal care program came from the Jewish Family Services staff,” she recalled. “They were working with older people who wanted to continue living independently in their homes or apartments but who needed just a little bit of help to make that possible – maybe help with bathing or tasks in the home that were difficult for them. We tried to find an existing program that could provide these services, but they all required at least a four-hour minimum per visit. These particular clients didn’t need that much help, and they couldn’t afford it.”
Warren, the event co-chair, was the founding chair of the Beeson Trust at that time.
“The funds that Canterbury received after the death of Lucille Beeson were designated to be used to benefit the needy elderly in Jefferson County,” she recalled.
“CJFS came to talk to us about starting the Personal Care program. We agreed that it was hugely needed and that it would make a difference in older people’s lives, allowing them to live in their own homes or apartments independently for longer. For many years, the Beeson Trust has funded this program at its maximum level,” Warren said.
Most clients in the program reside in subsidized senior housing communities, such as Episcopal Place. Tim Blanton, executive director of Episcopal Place, said if not for the Personal Care program, many of his residents would be unable to continue living in their apartments. These residents cannot do all of the housekeeping that is required of residents in federally subsidized housing, he said.
“They can’t afford to have someone do it, and they don’t have family and friends that can help,” he said, adding that many of them live very isolated lives.
“A lot of times the personal care attendant is the only person they may see,” he said.
Collat Jewish Family Services is a 34-year-old United Way agency that provides support services for individuals and families in greater Birmingham, regardless of their faith or financial ability.
Tickets to Hands Up Together are available at cjfsbham.org/giving.
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