Commons Threads winter update
I am writing a winter update to our community about The Commons as we wrap up an eventful year and have made some important changes in our structure. We now have both a program and marketing director, Jeremy Loguercio, and a development director, Tara Smith. We are also pursuing a position for volunteer director.
Since The Commons opened in May 2018 we have held hundreds of events for people of all ages including: a monthly contradance, a weekly senior luncheon and social hour, youth gymnastics and multiple lifelong learning classes and workshops, weddings, birthdays and community events. Our board recently met for a strategic planning retreat at which time we recommitted to our mission to be a place for “building community, preserving memories and enhancing personal vitality by including people of all ages.”
In particular, we are looking forward to the coming year where we hope to host more public conversations and classes about topics of interest to our community such as community resilience, land preservation, poverty, housing solutions, health care, opioids, youth aspirations, caregiving and stress reduction.
We are also very aware of one aspect of our original vision that remains uncompleted which is the development of a medical model adult day program. The board continues to believe that such a service is much needed in our region, and has struggled to find a way to bring this important program to our community. Completion of the space at Central Hall designated for this program has been delayed for financial reasons. We now have raised nearly enough money to complete the construction. However, we recognize that starting such a program also depends on several additional factors, including being able to find a service provider willing to develop and run such a program and adequate funding and reimbursement for such services. We have not been able to be guaranteed of either of those requirements.
We have a longstanding desire to support older people, and recognize that aging looks different for some people than for others. We remain committed to providing a place where people of all ages and abilities can come to connect with others, play, relax, talk, learn or share a meal and where everyone can feel valued. We know that there are many dependent older adults and their family caregivers who would benefit from the availability of a safe, supervised program of social activities, creative expression, meals and memory support. While everyone’s goal is to age in place and to live their lives fully, often such individuals and family members who make this experience possible experience progressive isolation. The family caregivers, who are working, become overwhelmed, isolated and exhausted. These families need options for safe respite. The need is urgent, and can not wait until the perfect adult day service center provider is found.
The Commons is therefore committing in the coming year to supporting this population by developing transitional, part-time programming for people with evolving dependencies, providing integration into existing programming with special staffing support while also supporting individualized ability-determined activities as needs change. This programming will require the completion of the first floor space which is starting now. We look forward to hosting a community forum in the next few months to hear from community members about how we can meet some of the needs of people in this transitional stage of life. In the meantime, we look forward to continuing to work with other local health providers and our local, state and federal representatives to overcome some of the barriers to a full medical model adult day service center and to support such a program in our region.
We are grateful for the support of the community in this past year and a half, and look forward to developing new friendships and a wider variety of programming for the benefit of everyone.