SENIOR EMPOWERMENT PROJECT BREAKFAST SPARKS OPPORTUNITIES TO BETTER SERVE OUR SENIORS

More than 80 seniors attended the Senior Empowerment Project’s Northwoods Senior Breakfast in Merrill last Saturday. Participants shared a meal together, but the deeper value came from the opportunity to share their opinions. The group listed several challenges that affect their everyday lives.

Among the top concerns were access and availability to transportation across city and county lines (including weekends), and isolation, including connecting isolated neighbors, especially those who struggle with technology, to information, resources, churches, enrichment, and libraries. Other challenges discussed included senior healthcare access, caregiver support, and respite care.

The event’s organizer, Eileen Guthrie emphasized that this is only the beginning. Members of the group are now tasked to take what they learned on Saturday and develop solutions to more effectively serve Northwoods seniors.

While the Senior Empowerment Project was birthed from efforts to keep or add services for seniors in Lincoln, Sauk, Portage, and Walworth counties including members of People for Pinecrest and Citizens for the Sauk County Healthcare Center, the project is now expanding statewide. Though their focus of their outreach is to the senior population, information shared and outcomes can have a profound influence on those who love, care for and support them as they continue to come together and seek solutions across our state.

Those wishing to be part of upcoming events can visit Senior-Empowerment.org, email info@senior-empowerment.org, or call 262-394-6649.