• We offer about 20 services that are 100% cost free and allow our clients to live as safely as possible in their homes.
• As a 90% privately funded agency we are able to ensure your $ goes to where it counts. In FY20 80¢ of every $1 went to direct client services.
• We also were already investing and providing services that other agencies only began to during the COVID 19 pandemic like our Silver Circles program and our Groups initiatives that were already inclusive of homebound individuals via our hybrid model of in-person and virtual programming.
Mr. A, 74, began receiving agency services in 2013. He recently expressed concern to an S&C Social worker about his ability to afford his apartment in the future, as well as the fear of becoming homebound since it is a walk-up. After initial reservations, Mr. A and his Social Worker are now submitting housing applications (though currently waitlisted). In the meantime, Mr. A is also receiving assistance with his budgeting and bill paying—enabling him to understand and meet his existing expenses. Mr. A participates in our telephonic “Newsroom Group” after he admitted feeling lonely. “Knowing I am looking into alternative housing options, and speaking with you is helping me feel like I’m not ‘going it alone.’”
Mr. O, a 77-year-old Latino man, and active client in several of Search and Care’s services regularly expresses his appreciation and value for the agency. Mr. O also a deeply religious man studying to get his Masters in Theology through online classes often shares his “blessings” with our staff and on several occasions has described us as his “Search and Care family”. As such, when Mr. O recently feel on hard times experiencing the loss of several close family members to COVID 19 we decided to do as any “family” would and sent Mr. O a card and care package to offer our condolences and share our support. At Search and Care our clients are not just names in a database they are valued members of the community and in many cases as Mr. Ortiz would say “family”.
Ms. R, mid-60s, lives in the Bronx. She was referred to Search and Care in fall 2020 by a Manhattan friend of hers who was concerned about Ms. R’s increased isolation and potential self-neglect. After one of our Search and Care Social Workers spoke to Ms. R on the phone, he made an emergency home visit (practicing safety protocols and social distancing) to provide her with emergency groceries, as well as toys and treats for her two beloved cats, Taz and Hunter. Ms. R was truly grateful for the visit as she has no family and few friends. Our Search and Care workers have continued to arrange emergency grocery and pet supply deliveries for Ms. R, as well as conducting regular telephonic check-ins to reduce her loneliness and isolation. “Thank you so much for everything you are doing for me,” Ms. R told our Social Worker.
