National Mission Institutions
A Place
to Grow
by A. Victoria Hunter
National Mission Institutions: A Place to Grow
by A. Victoria Hunter
Just as we experience life differently, our life choices will figure in how we live out our "golden years." Brooks-Howell Home, Mary Elizabeth Inn, Friendly Center and Nome Community Center are United Methodist Women supported mission institutions that also serve the elderly in different styles based on need.
Brooks-Howell Home
Brooks-Howell Home, set in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina in Asheville, is a unique United Methodist institution serving seniors who've dedicated their lives to Christian service. Historically linked to the Women's Division, it was built to be a benefit for retired church workers since most were meagerly paid while they were in mission.
Brooks-Howell Home residents chose "Called, served and serving still" as their motto, appropriate for residents of a facility built to reenforce dignity, independence and self-worth of people who have committed their life to mission.
An aqua-therapy pool is the newest accommodation at Brooks-Howell Home. Residents will be able to tone and strengthen their heart and other muscles.
"Exercising in water is less stress on joints," said Thelma McGraw, Brooks-Howell Home administrator. "We will have an aqua-therapist. The pool will be enclosed and climate controlled so we can use it year round."
Brooks-Howell Home also has a pottery shop and a lapidary room where residents cut and polish rocks, make jewelry and bookends. There is a room for developing film for photography buffs and a place to make ceramics and other handicrafts.
The residents have a lot in common. All have served as missionaries abroad or as deaconesses in the United States. Now they share a housing complex that's home.
"It gets to be a family," Ms. McGraw mused. They share in devotion every day which sets the tone. There is Bible study.
Ms. McGraw has noticed a tremendous change in retirees.
"In 1970 they came to Brooks-Howell Home to live in two rooms with a connecting bath," Ms. McGraw said. "That became obsolete in the 1980s, and was no longer acceptable. Now there are larger accommodations for computers and more living space. You have to keep your program geared to the interest of the people you serve."
Mary Elizabeth Inn
Older women were not part of the target population for Mary Elizabeth Inn, but of the 530 women who live there in an average year, Kae Lewis, executive director since 1990, estimates about a fourth are 60 or older.
Older women on fixed incomes have a hard time finding housing, Ms. Lewis said. Often these women suffer isolation, as their network of friends and associates shrinks and contact with relatives who live far away diminishes.
"For some of them, transitional housing is a scary place to be," she shared.
Especially if there are extenuating circumstances, like surviving domestic abuse, alcohol or drug abuse, or just being an older adult with nowhere to go.
"Some are eligible for Social Security because of age or disability," Ms. Lewis said.
The 86-room residence is undergoing a major renovation to make it more accessible for people with disabilities. A Call to Prayer and Self-Denial grant provided a portion of the seed money for the work. The San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women helped with the rest.
One of six women's residences affiliated with the Women's Division, Mary Elizabeth Inn was built in 1914 by laywoman Lizzie Glide as a place for women with limited finances in San Francisco. Mary Elizabeth Inn is still needed today. Typically,
the rent for a small studio apartment is $1,900 a month -- and that's a moderate price given San Francisco's housing shortage. (
A small private, furnished room ranges from $659 monthly to $837 monthly for a large furnished room. This includes two meals daily; linen service; complete laundry facilities; Sun deck and solarium; TV lounges and library and newspaper service. In addition there is 24-hour staff assistance and counseling upon request, Ms. Lewis added.
"There are more shelters for animals than there are for battered women," Ms, Lewis said. "Mary Elizabeth Inn is another name for home. All women are welcome here."
Friendly Center
About five years ago, half a dozen older adults knocked on the door of the Friendly Center in Toledo, Ohio. They wanted the center to extend itself to senior citizens in the area. No objections were raised at the Women's Division-owned center, known for its inner city ministry.
The seniors' group, now about 30 people, organized its own ceramic classes and other activities for recreation. Friendly Center and the Lucas County Senior Nutritional Program provide the group members with a hot meal five days a week.
The Friendly Center makes food shopping easier for seniors with regular trips to large supermarkets. Often managers, alerted ahead, prepare coffee and doughnuts for them.
The group also let legislators hear its collective voice.
"We took them to Columbus to be a part of a rally for seniors," said the Rev. David J. Morris, executive director of the center for 24 years now. "There were organized activities and many met their Congressmen."
That was put together by the Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio, he said. Once a year the Office on Aging, a quasi governmental office, makes a presentation to a large meeting of seniors across the state. The Office on Aging funds at least a dozen senior centers in Lucas County including Friendly Center. They make it possible for seniors to have rent subsidies, to transform non-accessible facilities to handicap accessible. The Office on Aging can levy several million dollars for operating programs for seniors and also receives state funding. The office covers 16 counties.
Mr. Morris knows the mission the seniors initiated has great advantages. "It provides socialization for those who would normally not get out of their homes," Mr. Morris said. "It fights isolation because many lack transportation. It keeps them from living off snack foods."
Friendly Center distributes government surplus canned foods and rice to needy households in the area. The center picks up bread, pies and cakes donated by corporate concerns, like Kroger and other entreprenaurs. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gives money to areas with high unemployment rates. Lucas County received $120,000 for 1999. Rev. Morris said FEMA has been doing this for at least the last ten years. FEMA also gives three days worth of food in an emergency. The center also sells clothing for 20 cents an item or two dollars a bag.
Mr. Morris said it is important to have these kinds of programs in place because people are living longer.
"Older adults have to address the use of their leisure time and maintain their health," he said. "We have to be on top of what happens to Social Security and Medicare. HMOs (health maintenance organizations) are dealing unfairly with elders. Many are returning to the workplace like McDonald's and Wendy's working 25 hours a week to supplement their income."
Nome Community Center
Douglas McCoy, executive director of Nome Community Center in Nome, Alaska, says seniors there call their prepared meals ×YZ: Xtra Years of Zest. Some meals are served congregate style. Others are delivered Meals-on-Wheels fashion. But thanks to four-wheeler vehicles, snow machines and snow mobiles, older adults in the program have learned they can count on Nome Community Center for a hearty meal.
"Even when the temperature drops to 40 below, we're still delivering meals," Mr. McCoy said of the Women's Division-owned facility.
Most of the senior population that counts on Nome Community Center are indigenous to the region. These are Eskimo people, 90 percent of whom are women, some of whom don't speak English very well, Mr. McCoy said.
"We help with translation," he said. "Our goals are to help them maintain the highest quality of life, to allow them to get out in the community so they don't have to leave the region."
The center offers adult day care for the elders who are frail. The program includes breakfast and other activities involving daily living. This includes showers because some people don't have running water in their homes. Center staff also take seniors shopping and on other outings.
Nome Community Center saw a gap in the continium of care for the elders, Mr. McCoy said. Nome Community Center built 16 one-bedroom, handicap accessible, apartment building for low-income seniors with the help of the U.S. Rural Development, an office of U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"Alaska is second to Nevada as the states with the largest aging population," Mr. McCoy said. "We are thought of as a young state, but elders are remaining. Many grandparents are caring for their grandchildren."
$AA. Victoria Hunter is senior writer for Response.
Mai Hutson Gray is a former president of the Women’s Division, 1976-80. She’s a retired educator and a member of St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Dansa, Mo.