Based out of a community center in Alton, IL, Senior Services Plus (SSP) offers a tight-knit feeling among regulars while also providing essential outreach services to seniors across several counties. SSP offers meals on wheels, in-home care specialists, assistance navigating government programs such as MediCare, and transportation services for people who can no longer drive.
Despite the breadth of these services, one of the things that stands out to Sandra Lee-Reams, an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving at Senior Services Plus, is the strong personal connections she sees when she goes into work. “Some of the same people come in and eat lunch every day…some people rely on those hot meals. It builds community by being the type of place people can go to get the type of things they need.” In addition to the daily meals, Sandra fondly describes a monthly bingo night and a quilting club hosted in the center.
Seniors face unique housing challenges. “People are on fixed incomes,” explains Sandra. “There’s not enough [affordable housing] for people.” With combined with care needs, accessibility challenges, and lack of transportation, the already small pool of affordable housing can rapidly shrink for seniors. Senior Services Plus is well-positioned to help older adults navigate these challenges and find or stay in their homes.
AmeriCorps VISTA Sandra Lee-Reams at Senior Services Plus’ annual open house
Sandra’s role as a Home Repair VISTA has shown her firsthand how essential Senior Services Plus’ programs are. Sandra helps manage the organization’s Direct Installation Measures (DIMs). “These measures include LED light bulbs, kitchen and bathroom faucet aerators. We have shower heads. We have pipe insulation, window insulation kits, door sweeps and smart power strips. So we keep those all in the office, and I distribute those to the community as they come in and ask for them,” says Sandra.
When asked how she spreads awareness about these services, Sandra says, “A lot of traffic goes in and out of the building…so people just come in and inquire…We also have an open house once a year where the whole building is open and we offer soft drinks, water, tea and things like that, and we have all our direct style measures out on tables…there’s tables from different departments, and each department lays out flyers about what they do here in the building.” The community center functions as a hub to help people find whatever type of help they need.
In addition to working within the center, Sandra and her colleagues plan outreach events throughout Senior Services Plus’ service area. There, they hand out bags with essential items and educate residents about weatherization and energy efficient resources provided by Ameren, the energy company serving the region. Sandra acknowledges the difficulty of this outreach, especially when SSP covers such a wide area. “There’s a need for a lot of home repairs in this area, if you’re trying to cover Madison County and all the other surrounding counties, East St Louis and other places, there are a lot of people who need to have home repairs done, and you know, it’s just kind of hard.”
However, Sandra came into her VISTA year ready for the challenge. “I’ve always loved community outreach. I’ve loved working in the community. It’s an extension of what I used to do, working in education—working in the community, working with children.”
Sandra’s VISTA position is designed to help raise awareness and scale up assistance so more people can benefit from SSP’s support. These programs show the power of ensuring older adults can maintain their own homes while also belonging to a community that helps them access the resources they need. SSP manages to bring both to the table–and, in doing so, strengthens the seven counties of the region it serves.