Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

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La Historia de Yanga (The History of Yanga) (Virtual)

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ESPAÑOL:
Para honrar a Juneteenth, CLC y Olivia Franco organizan este evento especial sobre la historia de Yanga. De Olivia, “En mi reciente viaje a Veracruz, México conocí al Sr. Antonio Carrera Pérez, quien invirtió su tiempo en mostrarme Yanga y su historia. El señor Carrera trabaja en el Centro Cultural Yanga y ha realizado una extensa investigación para terminar su libro, de Yanga en un grito de libertad. En esta presentación mostaremos la vida de los cimarrones y sus culturas en comidas y rituales. De lo que aprendí, Yanga tiene una historia extensa que no ha sido definida ni terminada de contar porque todo el tiempo se encuentra nueva información. Estamos conociendo mejor la historia de Yanga.”

CÓMO UNIRSE A ESTE EVENTO:
No es necesario registrarse con anticipación; solo regístrese entre 10 y 15 minutos antes de la hora de inicio del evento.

Para unirse por teléfono, marque 888-475-4499 (gratuito) o 669-900-6833 (local).
Ingrese el ID de la reunión: 870 7204 8045, luego presione # dos veces.

Para unirse con video, haga clic en este enlace: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87072048045 para registrarse y unirse. Espere en la “sala de espera” hasta que la actividad esté lista para comenzar.

Haga clic en esta oración si tiene problemas para unirse a la clase por Zoom.

Para crear un ambiente amigable y minimizar las interrupciones, cerraremos la actividad a nuevos participantes 15 minutos después de la hora de inicio. El enlace anterior funcionará en su tableta o computadora. Se le pedirá que descargue una aplicación de Zoom la primera vez que use Zoom. Si está utilizando una PC o Mac, puede unirse desde su navegador web sin usar el software Zoom.

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ENGLISH:
To honor Juneteenth, CLC and Olivia Franco are hosting this special event about Yanga’s history. From Olivia, “On my recent trip to Veracruz, Mexico I met Mr. Antonio Carrera Perez, who spent time showing me Yanga and its history. Señor Carrera works at the Yanga Cultural Center and has done extensive research to finish his Yanga book, In a Cry for Freedom. In this presentation we will show the life of the maroons and their cultures in foods and rituals. From what I learned, Yanga has an extensive history that has not been defined because nobody at the time wrote anything down – new information is found all the time. We are getting to know Yanga’s history better.”

HOW TO JOIN THIS EVENT:
Registration ahead of time is not needed – only register about 10-15 minutes before the event start time.

To join by phone, dial 888-475-4499 (toll-free) or 669-900-6833 (local).
Enter Meeting ID: 870 7204 8045, then press # twice.

To join with video, click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87072048045 to register and join.
Wait in the “waiting room” until the activity is ready to start.
Click on this sentence if you have issues joining the class by Zoom.

To create a friendly environment and minimize interruptions, we will close the activity to new participants 15 minutes after the start time. The above link will work on your tablet or your computer. You’ll be prompted to download a Zoom app the first time you use Zoom. If you’re using a PC or Mac, you can join from your web browser without using the Zoom software.

Senior Beat Covers the In-Home Caregiving Crisis

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Staff writers Mary Hunt and Judy Goddess wanted to write about in-home caregiving in part because they and their friends are of the age when the need is a present or near-future reality. And they figured it’s better to learn to navigate the system when you’re in better health than not.

Once they started to explore, Goddess said, it suddenly seemed as though every middle-aged and older person is giving or receiving care or has a caregiver story. Often, they involve children or spouses trying to convince a frail senior that they need care. Or they’re about seniors or their families struggling to find a reliable, competent caregiver whose personality and skills suit the recipient. Just as importantly, they’re about figuring how to pay for that care.

As of 2020, there were 2.3 million home care workers in the United States, according to April Verrett,  president of SEIU Local 2015 in California, the nation’s largest long-term-care union. And if we are to meet the needs of our aging population, she wrote in TIME magazine, we’ll need another 1.2 million by 2028. Yet, even now, there are not enough caregivers to meet the needs.

Their efforts to look into the world of in-home care produced a series of stories we’ll be releasing over the next several days, along with resources for readers. You can subscribe to San Francisco Senior Beat (see the top of our website) to get email notices when new stories are published, or follow us on Facebook, or follow this guide to know when to check our site for our caregiving stories.

THE SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, May 4: High costs and dearth of financial assistance programs for middle-income seniors leave them in the lurch when help at home is needed. The Rev. Eileen Kinney is one of the many Americans, those of middle-income, for whom costly in-home care is unaffordable. She began having trouble with basic tasks like cleaning and cooking when her neuropathy worsened. But not being wealthy enough to hire care, nor poor, which would have qualified for in-home care through Medi-Cal, she had nowhere to turn – until she was able to get into one of the rare programs that offer financial help for seniors in the middle-income gap.

Friday, May 6: ‘I’m too young to need a walker!’ A fall and fracture jolt an independent life in a comfy Stonestown apartment. Mary Hunt didn’t think of herself as old at the age of 76. Even when she broke her wrist in a fall, she didn’t see the need to hire a caregiver. She lived alone but had friends around and a sister in Daly City. Her daughter lives in Georgia. Having some stranger come in felt like an intrusion.

Sunday, May 8: Tending to aging seniors in their homes a necessary and noble occupation, but undervalued – and physically and emotionally challenging: Debbie Gilli had always loved being around her grandmother and her in-laws. She simply liked older people. It wasn’t much of a stretch to become a caregiver. Anna Kivalu likes the look into other lived worlds she gets when helping clients. Lourdes Dobarganes gets clients to salsa dance with her to strengthen their balance and keep them moving. She’s also been known to have them hug trees for a positive energy experience. They have few complaints about their work, but would like to make more money and have benefits like overtime, sick time or workers compensation. Those obstacles are barriers to the supply of caregivers keeping up with the demand for their services.

Tuesday, May 10: Family members make up majority of in-home caregivers due to help’s high cost, taking on all-consuming, sometimes overwhelming role. The high cost of in-home caregiving has led many families to take on the burden themselves. In fact, the vast majority of caregivers serving Medi-Cal clients in San Francisco – hired through the city’s In-Home Supportive Services program – are family members. While most become members of the caregivers union and make slightly more than minimum wage, it is still an all-consuming, physically exhausting and sometimes maddening job.

Thursday, May 12: Neighborhood and ‘village’ networks help seniors who live near one another as aging makes daily tasks more difficult. Within eight years, a third of San Franciscans will be 60 or older, and according to various studies about a third will live alone. In 2020, that would have been about 54,000 seniors. The ones who have no family, or none that live nearby, are turning to neighbors to form support networks for help with everyday tasks they’re having trouble with – getting to a doctor’s appointment, shopping for groceries, changing a lightbulb –temporarily or long term. Some of these neighborhood networks are informal; others involve low-cost memberships that offer support as well as activities.

 

CLC Board of Directors Adopts Leadership Statement on DEIB

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The CLC Board of Directors approved a strong statement on our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Including and Belonging to guide the continuing efforts of our DEIB Task Force in implementing a focused list of recommendations.  More information to follow, but we wanted to share the statement as soon as possible, included below.  

DEIB Initiative Leadership Statement  Adopted by the CLC Board of Directors July 27, 2021

Our Commitment

Diversity

We believe that developing a workplace and leadership structure that is representative and inclusive of race, ability, age, language, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion is critical to accomplishing our organizational mission and addressing the injurious effects of systemic power and privilege.  We believe that when we better reflect the communities we serve, our ability to identify and understand the needs of those communities grows, and our work has a greater impact.  

Equity

We strive to empower those who experience systemic and historic oppression by building workplace norms and practices that aim to treat everyone equitably by encouraging everyone to contribute their ideas, perspectives, and opinions, paying particular attention to how privilege has historically been given, and how that history provides advantage to some groups and individuals over others.

Inclusion

We acknowledge that social identities impact the way people communicate, whose opinions are respected, and who struggles with misconceptions, judgments, or preconceived notions. We work to foster a welcoming and collaborative environment where those who may otherwise be silenced are included and respected, so that they can bring their best skills and talent to their work, feel fulfilled and feel unified as a team, knowing that together, we have more impact.

Belonging

We are committed to fostering an open and trusting workplace culture, where biases and stereotypes are discussed and challenged using shared norms and language and everyone feels clearly aligned with CLC’s values, mission, and commitment to equity, fairness, and racial justice.

Ensure Equity in Aging – Be Culturally Aware

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The development of the California Masterplan on Aging is an important step for California.  As part of the development , the California Department of Aging is hosting a series of Webinars toward greater cultural awareness and humility.   Sessions are free and available on regularly, with sessions recorded in case you miss one. Over the next several months, CDA will host an Ensuring Equity in Aging webinar every first Wednesday, from 10-11am. Presentations will cover a range of topics including the value of cultural traditions and harnessing community strengths and assets. They will also detail how historic and systemic discrimination and internal biases harm the wellbeing of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ, disabled older adults, and in different ways, all Californians. Speakers address how we can work together to address the resulting inequities through culturally responsive policy, program, and service planning and delivery.

Upcoming Programs: 

If you missed the first few, you can still join in with these recorded sessions. 

This and other important information is posted on CDA’s Equity in Aging Resource Center.

The Transition from Hospital To Home – San Francisco Must Do Better

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The transition from hospital to home has always been fraught with peril.   Now has  become even more so in the era of COVID-19.  The limits on caregivers and advocates visiting and supporting a patient in the hospital, the over stretched hospital staff, including social workers and discharge planners, and the significantly reduce options for transitional care are major barriers.   But many of the problems existed before the pandemic.  In fact, a  Transitional Care Blueprint released in San Francisco in 2008 documented the issues and provide a wide range of improvements needed.  A few were implemented and remain, others were implemented and then disappeared when funding was cut.  The rest are still good ideas that could be implemented locally with strong advocacy.   

As more and more of the neighbors we meet through the Community Connector networks and our other programs face increasing illness and disability, this issue has resurfaced as a critical one to address.  One of our earliest neighborhood networks created a team that called itself the “Keep Helen Out of the Hospital” .  A Community Connector enlisted neighbors and health professionals alike to support Helen in this goal.  It included both a good discharge plan but a commitment to prevent re-admissions which are often result from  an unsafe discharge.   CLC is working with the California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) to expand its Safe Hospital Discharge workshops and provide thousands of wallet cards about who to call if you or your loved one is not getting a good discharge.   

CLC will be presenting a workshop at the next OWL meeting on your patient rights in a Navigating Hospital and Beyond.  It will be held Saturday, February 27 from 11:00 to 12:00 on Zoom.  Participants will receive a packet of information via the mail from CLC as well as the Hospital Discharge Wallet Card shown here.  In the meantime, if you would like us to mail you this card, send your address to  info@sfcommunityliving.org.  

To connect with CARA for. workshop near you or if your organization would like to sponsor one, contact jreid.cara@gmail.com.  Or download some of the information  that will be available to those who attend these workshops.

 

Senior Power on “I DEMAND A REFUND!”

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We particularly enjoyed this Monday morning post from Margaret Graf, reflecting on 2020 as it draws to a close…

Dear Powers That Be (PTB):

I have been a loyal & normally enthusiastic user of your yearly products for a very long time, usually with only minor grumps & complaints. This past year was the final straw.  Frankly, 2020 did not measure up to my expectations & in fact, was one of the worst ever.  I admit that I may have been a bit overly enthusiastic in the beginning, it being the start of a new decade & all, but really…it began to fall apart almost from the beginning & only got worse as time went on, pell-melling me & all your other users through a whole year with political farces, a world wide pandemic, weather calamities, fire disasters, extreme social injustice & fatal protests fueling a depressive mood that has brought us to our knees, fairly weeping in despair & crying for mercy.  When I say “we” I mean the people, here in U,S, around the world, humans everywhere subjected to an onslaught of your whims & the  defective product you foisted upon us.  In short, 2020 was too complicated to use, impossible to assemble, came with no warnings or directions on use & was just plain defective nearly from the beginning. The pandemic was the really ‘big one’  wiping out a serious number of us, causing businesses to close, jobs lost, long food lines & despair.  Not satisfied with that, you  sent along wildfires, floods (never in the same place of course) & economic penalties to boot.  Really??  What did we do to deserve this shabby & unconscionable treatment at your hands??  THERE WAS NO LETUP ALL YEAR LONG!  Only in the last month, have we begun to be able to counteract your product & slow the disintegration of the whole mess.  Thanks to the cleverness of our scientists, we now have 2 (with more on the way shortly) counter-measures (we call them vaccines) to this horror you have visited upon us.

SO…in the spirit of negotiation & recognizing our long standing loyalty to the years you have been kind enough to bless us with in the past, I propose a negotiation, without which I sincerely believe we will have lost all faith in your product & will have to look elsewhere for our future.  You are not the only planet in the universe, you know.

I sincerely ask…no demand, on the part of all my fellow humans, that in order to show your good faith you grant us a refund.  Minimally, it should reflect the period of use from March-December, when we were hardest hit & before we began to suspect the inadequacy & continued dangerous consumption of your product.  I propose that you grant a refund, to each & everyone of us, beginning January 1, 2021, in the form of adding  10 months to the end of each of our lifetimes on Planet Earth to compensate for the period noted above.  It is a fair & equitable solution, with little cost or effort to you, not nearly adequate to compensate us for the misery you have cost, but as an expression of your good will toward the future. Please take this demand seriously and reply forthwith.

Sincerely yours, 
Margaret Graf, Senior Power
 

Understand How CA Prop 19 Impacts Your Family Home & Property Taxes (Virtual)

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On Nov 3, 2020, CA voters passed Prop 19, “The Home Protection for Seniors, Severely Disabled, Families and Victims of Wildfire or Natural Disasters Act,” which makes changes to property tax benefits available to these groups. While this new law mostly expands property tax benefits for these groups, it also includes provisions which significantly limit tax benefits for families who plan to pass property from parents to children. San Francisco Assessor Carmen Chu invites senior homeowners to join her for a presentation to learn more about the impacts of this new law on your family home and your property taxes.

To join by phone, dial 888-475-4499 (toll free) or 669-900-6833 (local).
Enter Meeting ID: 822 3789 7073 and Passcode: 655908.

To join with video, click this link to register and join: https://us02web.zoom.us/w/82237897073. Wait in the “waiting room” until the activity is ready to start.

Closed captioning provided.

To create a friendly environment and minimize interruptions, we will close the activity to new participants 15 minutes after the start time.

The above link will work on your tablet or your computer. You’ll be prompted to download a Zoom app the first time you use Zoom. If you’re using a PC or Mac, you can join from your web browser without using the Zoom software.

Post-Election Recap (Virtual)

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Election got you worried? We’ll be here to help you make sense of local, state, and national election results.

 


To join by phone, dial 888-475-4499 (toll free) or 669-900-6833 (local).
Enter Meeting ID: 865 6747 4200, then press # twice.
To join with video, click this link: https://zoom.us/j/86567474200 to register and join. Wait in the “waiting room” until the activity is ready to start.

To create a friendly environment and minimize interruptions, we will close the activity to new participants 15 minutes after the start time.

The above link will work on your tablet or your computer. You’ll be prompted to download a Zoom app the first time you use Zoom. If you’re using a PC or Mac, you can join from your web browser without using the Zoom software.

CLC Board of Directors Adopts Black Lives Matter Statement & Commits to Action

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Over the past several months, CLC’s staff and Board of Directors have been engaging in a process to discern how we can best draw on the strengths and wisdom of older adults and people with disabilities in our organization and our neighborhoods to support the Black Lives Matter movement and Black communities.The Board has adopted the following statement:

The Community Living Campaign (CLC) is committed to building communities that value fairness, equity, and justice.

Black Lives Matter. Black Voices Matter. Black Dreams Matter. Black Elders Matter. Black Leaders Matter. Black Stories Matter. Black Jobs Matter. Black Futures Matter.We support the Black Lives Matter movement and its call for justice. As an organization that works with a diversity of older adults and people with disabilities from many ethnic and racial groups, it is imperative that we collectively address the systemic racism that the Black Lives Matter movement seeks to remedy, and its relationship with our own cultural histories and personal experiences. 

The actions we see against Black people are not new nor are they unfamiliar to the individuals and communities who have experienced the effects of racist policies and practices for generations. Through the years, CLC members have engaged in actions against racist, ageist, ableist, classist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic policies. We have joined the ranks of legislators and advocates to correct these discriminatory policies and prejudices, which have not been eradicated, but continue to morph into new forms. 

There is much more to do. CLC is committed to listening, learning, and rededicating ourselves to remedying racism at every level – within our organization, the neighborhoods we serve, and the wider community.

The present is an important opportunity for older and younger generations to stand together and join forces in the Black Lives Matter movement. Toward that end, CLC has created a dedicated space on its website to share information and resources with staff and the wider community. This is one of the first steps in our action plan, which outlines ways we can have a positive impact on the lives of those we touch now and in the months and years ahead. 

Significant effort is required to understand issues of injustice, if injustice is to be eliminated in our lifetime and during the lives of following generations. We must continuously reaffirm our social contract, self-check our actions, and commit to teaching and learning from one another to establish a safe, healthy place for all. The work is on-going, but urgent. Please join us. 

Getting Ready to Vote in November (Virtual)

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Are you registered to vote? Do you know what’s happening this fall with mail-in ballots and polling places? Do you have questions about what’s on the November ballot? Come get answers to these questions and more from the SF Department of Elections.

To join by phone, dial 888-475-4499 (toll free) or 669-900-6833 (local).
Enter Meeting ID: 865 6747 4200, then press # twice.

To join with video, click this link: https://zoom.us/j/86567474200 to register and join. Wait in the “waiting room” until the activity is ready to start.

To create a friendly environment and minimize interruptions, we will close the activity to new participants 15 minutes after the start time.

The above link will work on your tablet or your computer. You’ll be prompted to download a Zoom app the first time you use Zoom. If you’re using a PC or Mac, you can join from your web browser without using the Zoom software.