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Community 360º is a nonprofit organization that reaches out to older adults living in nursing homes, many of who suffer the terrible pain of loneliness at this time of year. We recruit, screen and train highly committed and passionate volunteers who will be family to many of them. We rely solely on the generosity of good people like you. Please give a gift that will make a real difference to a real person.
Citation preview
At this me of year, I come
to you for your year‐end gi to Community 360°. Over the past 12 months we have made great strides in producing high quality training materials and highly trained volunteers who are a true asset to the people who live
and work in nursing homes.
I would venture to guess that few people wake up in the morning thinking about the day when they will need a nursing home. Yet, it is a very real and likely possibility for millions of Americans. It’s difficult to understand the pain of loneliness. Mother Teresa upon a visit to the United States toured a nursing home. Her reac on sums up the issue we, at Community 360° are confron ng: “I have found a poverty more painful than hunger, it is the poverty of being unwanted.” Feeling unwanted is painful and leads to behaviors and depression which only increases the workload of an already overworked care staff.
With few excep ons, nursing homes are underfund‐ed, understaffed, and the workers under‐trained. Over the next 20 years the situa on will only grow worse. This is where Community 360° can help meet the need for taking care of our elderly. Producing highly trained and skilled volunteers to work side‐by‐side professional care staff is our mission. We know that our state‐of‐the‐art training programs work. We’ve seen the results. There are people, success‐ful mid‐career professionals looking for a way to give back to the community. There are people, families looking for meaningful ac vi es that engage the family as a
unit. There are young people who may never have been lucky enough to have had a rela onship with a grandmother or an older adult role model. They want to make that connec on.
In short, we are a rac ng highly commi ed, highly mo vated and passionate people who want to “be there” for the people living in nursing homes. The people living in nursing homes feel that authen c uncondi onal love and respond in kind. Beau ful and loving rela onships are formed. Behaviors and depression evaporate.
Those rela onships become the life blood of that elder living in a nursing home. When you give to Community 360°, you are giving to a local organiza on, accountable to the community for it’s work. You can see it in ac on, right in your backyard.
To strengthen my appeal to you, I’ve asked people associated with Community 360° to share their reasons for suppor ng Community 360°. Heather Holmes is a profes‐sional care staff at Good Samaritan Society, John Rogers (“J.R.”) started as a volunteer and is now a member of our board, Julie Kaminski is the Execu ve Director of LeadingAge Nebraska, and finally Ed Joseph is our develop‐ment officer.
Please take a few moments to read their heart‐felt reasons for suppor ng Community 360° and please consider a very generous year‐end gi . We need your support. The need is cri cal and growing, we need your support to make 2014 an even greater year.
May God bless you richly in the coming year!
Paul Falkowski, Ph.D. Execu ve Director
I support and volunteer for Community 360° because I've seen how
effec ve they are in improving the quality of life for so many residents of nursing homes and care centers. Beyond their main mission of training skilled volunteers to be very helpful in short‐staffed care facili es, Community 360°'s "Christmas in Our Hearts" show and Valen ne’s Day card distribu‐
on puts big smiles on wrinkled faces that then light up the room. They care enough to be there, day a er day, li ing up the least of us, and they do it on a skinny shoestring budget. That's why I support Community 360° and why I hope you will, too. Thank you,
John Rogers
Julie Kaminski, Execu ve Director
LeadingAge Nebraska
Community 360° is a
fantas c & rewarding
organiza on that truly
advocates for the seniors in our
community. They know loneliness
is a problem, that can lead to so
many other issues and Community
360° is ac vely matching
volunteers with seniors to help
eradicate loneliness in area
nursing homes.
I am proud to help on the
Board of Directors and financially
support this viable organiza on.
Julie Kaminski
John (“J.R.”) Rogers
Midwest Sound and Ligh ng
50%
of nursing home residents
never receive a visitor from
anyone.
2X’s Nursing home residents
who do not get visitors are
twice as likely to die in the
same period as those that
do.
71% of the people, within three
months of being admi ed to a nursing home are on 3 to 4 an psycho c medica ons having had no prior diagnosis that would require the use of these
drugs.
Heather Holmes, MPA CTRS CDP Director of Recrea onal Therapy Good Samaritan Society—Millard
My passion is long term care
and working with aging
individuals. Spending each day
learning, understanding, and
assis ng to create purpose in an
individual’s life, o en mes when
they are at the end of their
journey in this life, is remarkable.
Volunteers are the key to
my program’s success and
comba ng loneliness in long term
care. There are many rules,
regula ons and restric ons that
team members working in a long
term care se ng must adhere to,
that in addi on to paperwork,
o en leaves minimal me for
rela onship building.
Having volunteers who
have been educated by
Community 360° is a gi to any
professional working in long term
care. The volunteer has a deep
understanding of the aging
process and culture of long term
care from their training.
Community 360° volunteers are
ready to hit the ground running
and serve the community.
Volunteers are able to take
the me to build rela onships and
be present with an individual. So
o en, what an aging individual in
a long term care se ng needs is
the presence of another person,
nothing grand.
As humans we are
communal and not meant to be
alone. Focused, one‐to‐one me
shared with another person is the
greatest gi one human can give
to another. The rela on‐
ship between
Community 360° and
Good Samaritan Society‐
Millard has supported
volunteers in our long
term care community and truly
made an impact in the lives of our
members, staff and visitors.
I am ecsta c to have a
rela onship with Community 360°
and am honored to witness the
terrific volunteer work happening
each day in communi es across
the Omaha Metro area. This
organiza on puts every dollar
donated back into the training and
care of the aging in our
community. Any dona on made
to Community 360° will assure
that the organiza on can con nue
to train high quality volunteers
and therefore impact aging
individual lives by comba ng
loneliness, isola on and
depression.
Please support Community 360°
Heather Holmes
“Volunteers are the key to my
program’s success and
comba ng loneliness in long
term care.”
“Having
volunteers who
have been
educated by
Community 360°
is a gi to any
professional
working in long
term care.”
“Community 360° develops and uses state‐of‐the‐art training material to produce highly mo vated and highly commi ed volunteers who become a true asset to the professional care staff.”
Ed Joseph Development Officer
Community 360°
I want to thank the following
companies and organiza ons for all their support in making 2013 such a successful year:
Without their generous help and contribu ons, 2013 would not have been the
successful year it was.
We par cipated in several new projects, including Omaha Gives through the Omaha
Community Founda on and Red Basket through Woodmen of the World Life Insurance.
We have a racted new donors, new businesses and are looking at con nued growth in both of these areas for 2014.
2014 should be an exci ng year for Community 360°, and whether or not you have donated, please do so before the year is up.
Your generous year‐end dona on will assure people in nursing homes con nue to receive Community 360° volunteers who are well trained and compassionate.
In closing, a few of our
donors have included us in their estate planning, and if you haven’t
already done so, please consider us when planning your estate.
Thank you for all your past and future support, and wishing you and your family Happy
Holidays and a Happy New Year.
Edward Joseph
A Final Thought...
Ten thousand people, the Baby Boomers, re re
every day. That will con nue un l the year 2030.
Star ng in the year, 2030, ten thousand people,
Baby Boomers, will begin turning 85 years of age, the age at which the odds of needing a nursing home jump to 1 out of every 2.
Seeing that Community 360° con nues its mission of
recrui ng and training volunteers for nursing homes will go a very long way to making sure that there is someone there for you.
More than half of all
nursing home residents never, never, receive a visit from anyone.
They die prematurely, not from old age but from a heart broken by loneliness and hopelessness.
Your year‐end gi can help us change those sta s cs.
Help us by giving
generously this year, and
Thank you!
3X’s Every gi is gratefully received
and receipted.
Every dollar you give is mul plied in services provided to nursing homes.
We rely on the generous support of people like you, who know how
important the services Community 360° provides.
Please be generous this year!
God Bless!
Newsle er design by Erin Endress,
Baird Holm LLP & Community 360°
board member.
BBG Ar stry
Ed’s Rexall Drug
Good Samaritan Society—Omaha
Hillcrest Health Systems
Hy‐Vee Supermarket #10 (156th and Maple)
Jones Automo ve
Omaha Community Founda on
Omaha Storm Chasers
Physicians Mutual
Russ Kaplan Investments
Thanksgiving Lutheran
The Ve er Founda on
The Salva on Army Kroc Center
Union Pacific Railroad