Looking Forward: The Unique Role of Senior Information & Assistance

The number of requests for services will be far greater than anything we have experienced before, and there simply will not be enough resources for everyone. Moreover, rules for major entitlement programs like MediCal and CalFresh are changing in ways that are not yet clearly defined.

For these reasons, the Agency needs to do all it can now to “shore up” the front-line staff who are tasked with assisting the public and explaining their individual options—namely, Senior Information and Assistance (I&A) call agents. Senior I&A is the original point-of-entry program; it has been a “core” Older Americans Act service
since 1973.

Today, AAA4’s Senior I&A funds supplement larger 211 programs in Nevada, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. Seniors First is the last “traditional” standalone I&A provider in our region; it coexists with 211 Placer.

Categorically, Senior I&A providers seem to have had the hardest time in the fundraising space. Phone calls don’t “pull on the heartstrings” of donors in the same way home-delivered meals do. In addition, some folks wrongly believe unbiased information is free and readily available to anyone who seeks it out, so why pay for it?

Meetings were recently held to get a sense of each provider’s current plans around maintaining and/or expanding revenue streams to support Senior I&A (either as a standalone service or as an augmentation to 211).

Those discussions resulted in three common goals:

  1. Prospective funders are unlikely to invest in I&A services if they do not recognize their value to the community; therefore, the foundational goal is to raise the profile of the importance of Senior I&A services throughout PSA 4 and, perhaps, statewide.
     
  2. AAA4 cannot expect others to step up if we are not doing so ourselves. The second goal is to work toward increasing baseline Older Americans Act funding for Senior I&A in the next RFP cycle (2029-33).
     
  3. Lastly, AAA4 Staff plan to contact regional and statewide grantors who may be willing to support Senior I&A over the long term – not just to support I&A applicants but to encourage the incorporation of I&A services into new grant opportunities going forward.

As Baby Boomers approach their elder years, it is imperative that the Aging Network’s primary point-of-entry hold strong. Too few families would be able to successfully navigate California’s maze of Long-Term Services and Supports without it. And conversely, that larger collection of supporting social service agencies, medical providers, housing providers, attorneys, bankers and care managers would not be able to fill the gap if Senior I&A programs were allowed to falter.

For more information about Senior Information & Assistance, please contact Will Tift at WTift@agencyonaging4.org.