By Sue Moretti Rogers
Next week the Junior League of Greenwich will hold its annual dinner, during which we officially welcome our new members and leadership and reflect upon on our accomplishments over the past year.
Since our inception in 1959, the Junior League has collaborated with well over 100 organizations and non-profits, and this past year was no exception. Our activities saw us partner with a who’s who of community service giants, including Kids in Crisis, Nathaniel Witherell, the Bruce Museum, the Boys and Girls Club and Neighbor to Neighbor, to name a few. In addition, for the first time, we partnered with the Greenwich Senior Center and with Abilis, Inc. They are both longstanding, extraordinary organizations that provide services for two segments of our population that need support. Even as a Greenwich native, I did not realize the depth and breadth that both of these groups provide to our community.
The Greenwich Senior Center is a town facility that offers cultural, recreational, educational, and social activities for seniors. Any Greenwich resident age 55 and older can participate. The Center brings together older adults in the Greenwich community and gives them meaningful opportunities to enjoy themselves and live the center’s motto of “Life: Be-In-It.” In fact, their over 400 members participate in a variety of programs, enjoy nutritious luncheons, attend health forums, classes (from arts and crafts to history and French), take part in day trips, dance, sing or simply relax in a friendly atmosphere.
More than 10 million Americans take part in activities through the over 15,000 senior centers located across the country. Closer to home, our local Commission on Aging projects that by 2050, half of our Greenwich residents will be over the age of 60. Commission Director Lori Contadino explained that this is going to have a profound impact on our community in terms of retirement, housing, finances, health care, leisure and more, thereby increasing the value and impact the Senior Center can have on all of us.
Abilis, located in Glenville, provides services and support from birth on for over 700 individuals with special needs as well as their families. Founded in 1951, the agency works to advance the abilities of people with special needs so that they can have empowered and productive lives. While Abilis has been serving the community for 66 years, I wonder how many people know of the broad reach of their 300 staff members. For example, last year they provided 7,200 therapy sessions for 400 “Birth to Three” families and 1,000 hours of social and recreational programs for over 100 teens and adults. Abilis partners with nearly 60 local businesses who participate in their Competitive Employment Program who provide quality work opportunities for participants in a variety of jobs.
This past year, the Junior League presented Abilis with $5,000 through its annual Community Grant Award. The grant is intended to fund new initiatives or expand programs relating to significant community needs. Abilis was given the funding to launch a new activities program, “Cooking and Crafts” for children with disabilities in the fourth to eighth-grade level. There will be eight Saturday monthly classes with the goal of nurturing interests, social skills and friendships beyond the school environment. The program is designed to fill a gap in Saturday morning programming options for children with special needs. While Saturday mornings are typically full of sports and other recreational activities for children, the special needs community is lacking such access.
There is also a parent/caregiver component to the variety of Abilis programs aimed at providing parents with opportunities for education and community building. During the year, while children are in class, Abilis staff and professionals will offer parents a variety of programs on topics such as middle school and high school transition planning.
Why are community partners so important? Through collaboration, the impact of our combined efforts can be that much more profound by reaching those demographics in our community that often fly under the radar yet still need our support. These programs are all part of what makes Greenwich an inclusive community. In April, His Holiness Pope Francis gave a TED Talk on “why the only future worth building includes everyone.” He noted that “we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent ‘I,’ separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone. We don’t think about it often, but everything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state.”
He summed it up by stating that “everyone’s existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions.” Through our combined efforts, the Junior League of Greenwich and its partners try to deepen these ties with every member of our community, regardless of their needs or age or any other differentiating factor. By working together our sense of connection to each is strengthened while our sense of individual self-being is nourished and made healthier. Community partners help to foster, launch, and grow creative solutions to community challenges.
Sue Moretti Rogers is president of the Junior League of Greenwich.
