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COMMITTEE REPORTS

By Blog Master
Posted: 07/01/2021

2020-21 COMMITTEE REPORTS

The Village is a member-driven organization with many opportunities for members to plan and initiate activities. There are Program Committees and Affinity Groups. All committees and groups welcome your participation.

INCLUSIVITY COMMITTEE
Submitted By Karen Bagnard

The Inclusivity Committee is “building bridges” with the goal of creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities.  It is our goal to have a Village population that is reflective of our community at large where we can work together with all seniors on mutual interests, concerns and efforts.  

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Nancy Goodell, chair

The action plan for the Membership Committee changed dramatically due to Covid Restrictions as in-person community outreach programs came to a halt. However, lively discussions continued in our meetings as we reflected upon past events that had been successful and brainstormed new ideas for the future. Peter Le Sourd developed a connection with Pasadena realtors to enable them to share information about the Village with people moving into the community. Jeff Gutstadt coordinated the distribution of materials about the Village to medical offices. 

The Committee hosted two Zoom orientations for new members and continued to participate in monthly MEET ME AT THE VILLAGE gatherings via zoom. Ongoing projects conducted by Committee members and folks from other committees were acknowledged for efforts to continue to spread the word about the Village and for ongoing efforts to support the wellbeing of current members. Two new Committee members, Tina Hooper and Lora Harrington-Pride are developing a systematic approach for connecting to and following up with potential new members and those who have recently joined. 

As Covid restrictions are lifted, we look forward to meeting face-to-face with each other, potential members, and with new members over coffee or on a walk, and to resuming our MEET ME AT THE VILLAGE events at our office.  We also look forward to moving out into the community to share the word about the Village and to work side-by-side with other organizations.  Our newly created Village Outreach Team will enable us to staff booths at community events and participate in presentations to organizations. 


SUPPORT ASSESSMENT TEAM
Claire Gorfinkle, Chair

A team of (mostly retired) Social Workers, nurses and other professionals in the caring professions, along with staff, responds to complex issues facing members in a variety of situations related to health, social isolation, transportation and other age-related areas. We identify trends and respond to emerging issues affecting older adults by developing educational programs, discussion groups, and support groups. Staying Connected volunteers visit and/or telephone members to prevent isolation and offer support as needed. We supervise Social Work Interns who assist with Staying Connected and work on special Village projects.

During the pandemic year we made special efforts to reach out to all Village members by telephone, to check on their well-being and ensure that they remained aware of Village opportunities.  We invited participation in a "Coping with Covid" discussion group, which subsequently was renamed "Adapting When Life Gets Tough" to give members a safe place to share their experiences; we encouraged development of a second Caregivers' Support Group.  We are glad that so many of our members demonstrated their resilience, and made it through this difficult pandemic year. 

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Co-chairs:  Dick Myers, and James Brandon

The Communications Committee was chartered at the July 2020 board meeting and charged with four responsibilities. Below is a summary of these focus areas, and current activities:

- IT Tech Support Team: currently working to identify the needs of our members for tech support of any kind and investigating ways that we might provide support to the membership.

- Zoom Team: this group is handling all issues involving Zoom which include offering support to those of our members who are not already proficient in using Zoom.  This team will focus on increasing our effectiveness in serving our members and the wider community using Zoom.

- Website Team: this group is working to make our website becomes a substantial resource for our members and a marketing tool for The Village to inform our greater public about the wonderful things that our village offers to our members and our community. We redesigned the website to give it a more current and modern look and appeal. We also created a special events page to provide a means of promoting activities that may have special appeal not only to our members but to the greater public. We initiated a series of blogs to provide more information about the activities and interest of our villagers and we continue to update and enhance the website.

- Newsletter Team:  this group continues our longstanding newsletter that is published monthly and distributed to all our members and friends of The Village in our larger public. The team has recently initiated a blog of our newsletter where the content of the newsletter will be available to our members and the public through our website
These are a few of the things that the committee has underway and we are always looking for new ways to contribute to the sustainability and improvement of the Village.

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE
Karen Bagnard and Lucinda Haagenson, chairs

This committee plans cultural and intellectual events and activities including Member Connections programs, Creative Connections programs, Museum tours, theater outings, concerts, art exhibits at the Village office, Village Play Readers, documentary films, Travel Buddies, lectures on art, local history and Village events that tie-in with various cultures in our community.

THE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS COMMITTEE
Chuck Taylor, chair

This committee plans and executes social functions for Village members and assesses ideas for new activities.  Our current social functions include monthly birthday celebrations, the Annual Holiday Party and Sing-a-long, Zoom brunches, and Trivia Games.  We provide organizational support for the Village Neighborhoods.  We are currently assessing how we can begin restarting activities that were discontinued during the pandemic. 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS COMMITTEE
Wayne April, chair

This committee arranges presentations by community professionals and experts addressing a wide range of subjects that would be of use or interest to older adults. The topics include legal, medical, and financial issues, as well as lifestyle, well-being, and other just plain interesting things suggested by members. 

The Pandemic Year has been a challenge that the Committee has met, like the rest of the Village, by offering presentations through Zoom. There have been pluses and minuses, but we all rolled with the punches as we scaled the Zoom learning curve. With the easing of restrictions, we will be offering more events for in-person participation the remainder of the year. Stay tuned.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATING COMMITTEE
Natalie Cohen, chair

A major accomplishment of our committee was setting up a Telephone Team of volunteers to answer the Village phone for several hours every week so that Belinda, our Program Manager, could devote her time to other tasks.  This was set up and tested by the two interns, and there are now 5 volunteers who have been trained, and who regularly do this.  We hope to add a few more people to this team.

Committee member Esther Gillies has updated the list of volunteers who provide meals to Village members in need of temporary help; a list of suggested places to pick up meals is being developed.  

Other activities:  We’ve been personally contacting all new Village members, answering questions, and describing volunteer opportunities.  Members of the VCC are serving as active liaisons to each of the other Village committees. The VCC has found willing volunteers in response to requests from two other Village committees: Communication and Cultural Activities.  Some VCC members are assisting Katie with a revision of the volunteer application. 

We’re hoping that, as things open up post-pandemic, we’ll be able to welcome new members in person, and motivate them to become active volunteers.  We’ll also hope to have our usual spring luncheon at Mijares, where we can publically acknowledge individual volunteers for their activities.

AFFINITY GROUPS

A goal of Pasadena Village is to create a supportive community and to prevent isolation that can come with aging. Our affinity groups offer many opportunities for members to socialize, to meet new people, to make friends.  As members discover common interests they reach out to the membership and form affinity groups, allowing them to explore these interests with others.  Affinity groups are self-led, have a defined membership and are open to all Village members.  Groups plan their own meetings and activities.  

Whether it be playing bridge, hiking, reading, learning about their genealogy, or getting together to discuss fascinating topics, members of Pasadena Village enjoy gathering in small groups to share their common bonds and to learn something new.  New affinity groups are readily formed as members bring new interests to explore.

Click here - FOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF OUR AFFINITY GROUPS