Community Caregivers
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
What is "Community Caregivers"?
"It is a privilege to be part of your neighbor's life in their time of need."
-A Community Caregivers' volunteer.
Even in our own backyard, many have not heard of the vital community services our local nonprofit provides. We welcome the chance to introduce ourselves to the NYSCRC community.
Our Experience with Volunteers and Respite
Since many of our volunteers are nervous or unsure about offering respite, they do not check off that option on the volunteer application. We hope to increase the number of volunteers and the quality of our volunteer respite services by offering better training. Two staff members, Sue Griffiths and Linda Miller, recently completed the REST trainer's sessions offered by Doris Green and Eve Moses. All of our volunteers who currently provide or have offered to provide respite will be offered the REST training, as well as recruiting additional volunteers over the coming months.
Funding Opportunities
Text-Based Caregiver Support
DDPC announces funding to select one grantee in the amount of $600,000 ($200,000 per year for a three-year period) to develop a multimedia messaging service (MMS) campaign that will provide Text-based and other customizable information on topics including health, wellness and resources for family caregivers of children with intellectual, developmental and other disabilities.
The DDPC, in an attempt to address caretaker health concerns, intends to establish a text-based caregiver support network that will disseminate timely and relevant self-care and stress-management support through text messaging and web-based channels.
DDPC will fund one grantee to develop, pilot and implement a statewide family caregiver support initiative modeled after Text4baby.
Deadlines for Letter-of-Intent Submission & Proposal Submission
* RFP Posting Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2017
* Letter of Intent Due Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2017
* Proposal Due Date: Friday, March 3, 2017
Caregiver Support Training
DDPC announces funding to select one grantee in the amount of $600,000 ($200,000 per year for a three-year period) to establish an infrastructure to locally implement the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Positive Adult Development (PAD) trainings for family caregivers of individuals with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities.
The intent of this DDPC initiative is to provide family caregivers with continued opportunities for support training. The proposed project will implement two evidenced-based trainings models, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Positive Adult Development (PAD), to assist caregivers in stress reduction and teach them effective coping mechanisms for both short- and long-term stressful situations. Both models were developed by Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities based on research that uncovered "peer-led interventions targeting parental well-being can significantly reduce stress, depression and anxiety in mothers of children with disabilities". The DDPC seeks to harness these highly effective strategies and employ them for family caregivers throughout New York State.
Deadlines for Letter-of-Intent Submission & Proposal Submission
* RFP Posting Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2017
* Letter of Intent Due Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2017
* Proposal Due Date: Friday, March 3, 2017
