CONTACT:
Hope Caldwell
Marcomms Assistant, Friendship Center
marcomms@friendshipcentersb.org
SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, July 24, 2024— Friendship Adult Day Care Center, locally known as Friendship Center, has been awarded a $251,149 from the Alzheimer’s Association Center for Dementia Respite Innovation (CDRI) to enhance the quality and availability of dementia-specific respite care for people living with dementia and their caregivers in South Santa Barbara County.
Friendship Center is one of 21 recipients chosen to receive grant funding from nearly 200 applicants across the country. Funds will be used to develop their first community-based, person-centered activity ‘hubs’ for adults living with and impacted by dementia in South Santa Barbara County. These hubs, serving as satellite locations to Friendship Center’s flagship site of 45 years, will provide cognitive, emotional, physical, and social engagement tailored to individual preferences of program attendees and local resources- from other non-profit organizations to local business and restaurants-, allowing older adults to thrive in their own communities, amongst their own neighbors.
“The innovative aspect of this initiative lies in its deep integration into the local community, fostering a sense of shared responsibility for and visibility of modern dementia care. By situating these hubs within familiar community spaces, we aim to create a model that offers high-quality care while re-engaging individuals with their community at a time in their lives when seclusion and isolation are significantly more likely.” said Kathryn Westland, Executive Director of Friendship Center and Principal Investigator for this project. “The tagline for this initiative is ‘Celebrating Lives Well Lived in Communities Well Loved’, a concept that really helped guide the ethos of our proposal. The streets were paved, waves were surfed and schools were staffed in this area by the very same people who attend Friendship Center every day; we hope that by embedding tailored services within their local communities, these individuals can age-in-place with confidence, pride and camaraderie rather than be forced to seek care outside their familiar environment.”.
Since opening its doors 1976, Friendship Center has been the sole provider of dementia-focused day programs and caregiver respite in South Santa Barbara County. The Center’s programs are uniquely designed to reflect the natural landscape and cultural richness of the community, creating a familiar and comforting setting in which program members feel proud and seen. Monday through Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm, Friendship Center welcomes individuals living with various forms and stages of dementia or other cognitive impairments that limit their ability to independently access regular socialization, physical activity, nutrition or personal care. As part of their mission to never turn someone away due to an inability to pay for services, Friendship Center offers membership fees on a sliding scale basis based on each unique situation.
In conjunction with the grant, Friendship Center will also receive online training and ongoing technical assistance from the CDRI to ensure respite services are dementia-capable and to support sustainability. The CDRI will also collect data and evaluate the impact of these innovative projects from all grant recipients to inform public policy.
“We congratulate Friendship Center on its grant and look forward to working with its team to help enhance respite care services for local dementia caregivers,” said Sam Fazio, Ph.D., senior director, psychosocial research & quality care, Alzheimer’s Association. “We intend to gain insights from each respite program we fund, ultimately developing a catalog of programs, tools and resources that will be easily accessible to interested caregivers and care providers.”
The Alzheimer’s Association created the CDRI earlier this year after receiving a $25 million grant from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the next five years, the CDRI will provide $25 million in grant funding to local respite providers and organizations to enhance the quality and availability of respite care nationwide. Visit alz.org/cdri to see the full list of this year’s grant recipients.
Funding disclosure
This project is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $32,962,453 with 75 percent funded by ACL/HHS and $8,333,333 amount with 25 percent funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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