Elizabeth Township board hears pitch for ‘Safe at Home’ program for seniors

The initiative from the Rotary Club of Elizabeth works to minimize dangers so they can remain in their homes.

The Rotary Club of Elizabeth proposed a new initiative to help seniors in the Elizabeth Township area during last week’s board of commissioners workshop meeting.

The “Safe at Home” initiative preserves the independence of aging neighbors by pairing seniors with expert assessments and volunteers by using grant funding. The Rotary Club of Elizabeth can transform homes into safe, accessible sanctuaries to prevent accidents.

There are issues across the township in terms of people needing help, particularly seniors, according to Rotarian Eric Piper. They do a lot for younger residents in the area, and they wanted to focus on seniors as well.

“There are a lot of seniors out there hurting right now, and when we got this grant money, we were challenged on coming up with something,” Piper said. “We wanted to focus on our seniors because that is an area that we’ve identified is a need in the township.”

In a presentation at the meeting, Piper said 33% of Elizabeth Township residents are seniors. Many live in single-person households without adequate safety support networks with fixed incomes.

That inspired the Rotary Club to come up with this program as a way to support senior residents who are having a hard time. The goal is to build a community safety net that helps seniors remain safe, independent and connected to the community.

“They suffer in silence,” Piper said. “They are too proud to ask for anything. They have Social Security, and that’s all that they have, and the price of everything has gone up substantially over the last five years. That Social Security check is not going as far as it used to be. We want them to be engaged back into the community.”

Along with the Rotary Club, Piper identified some partnerships to help seniors throughout the township such as Meals on Wheels drivers, nonprofit Elizabeth Guardian Angels, Elizabeth Forward Sports and Activity Clubs and other municipal partners.

The goal is to get local businesses involved as well. Wellness checks will be done by trained Meals on Wheels drivers, supervision will be conducted by the Elizabeth Guardian Angels and the program will be managed by the Rotary Club.

Piper proposed professional services to help people at their houses. Funded essential services include gutter cleaning, dryer vent cleaning and safety repairs.

There will also be contactless errands, supply delivery, possibly pen pals with younger students in the area, along with other things. Volunteers will not be cutting grass, taking cash or driving seniors anywhere due to safety and efficiency issues.

“It’s a way to be able to communicate this to our senior population and get them back engaged instead of just being stuck in the house,” Piper said. “Get them out and doing stuff, socializing and improving their quality of life.”

Piper asked for the township to engage with the local business community about the program so they can get more people involved with no money needed from the township.

This is a pilot year, so they are going to work out the kinks, according to Piper. They received a small grant that was the catalyst for the program.

Piper told The Mon Valley Independent that they are initially going to look for vendors and volunteers who are interested in participating, which he said is the most important piece.

In the years to come, he hopes the Rotary will be able to expand not only the number of people, but the services as well.

“I think this is a fantastic program, and this can really grow a lot because as more people get involved, more ideas come and more opportunities to make them grow, so thank you very much for doing this,” Commissioner Chris Thoma said. “The Rotary Club has been an outstanding pillar in this community for a long time.”

In other business:

• The township will vote next month to apply for a Multi Modal Grant for four roads. Also being considered is a resolution to apply for the State Agility Program with PennDOT and to possibly look into Vialytics AI Road Management, which uses artificial intelligence to take pictures of roadways and ranks them based on repairs.

• The $20 million PennVEST loan opened in 2021 by the township for the Buena Vista and Boston pump stations has been completely dispersed. Commissioners can decide how they want to allocate the remaining disbursement of the unspent part of the loan.