Living in Isolation- Our Society's Seniors with Carolyn Deters

Today we have Carolyn Deters, the Executive Director for Gifts for Seniors with us.

Carolyn is fiercely passionate about alleviating social isolation and leads Gifts for Seniors, a local nonprofit striving to improve the wellbeing of older adults in our community. Through her consulting practice, Indelible Aging, she advocates for innovative, inclusive, social aging options that honor choices, preserve dignity, and prioritize human connection.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello, friends, Welcome to Readand Finding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands
On Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of hands On Twin
Cities, and i'm your host.I'm really excited about the topic that we'll

(00:36):
be talking about today because it's somethingthat affects every one of us who have
parents, grandparents, and maybe evengreat grandparents in our lives. We're going
to be discussing the ongoing challenges ofisolation that seniors in our community have faced,
and ways that you can take actionto help ease the isolation and improve
the health and lives of older adults. It's an honor and a pleasure to

(00:58):
have with us. Carolyn Leaders.Carolyn is fiercely passionate about reducing social isolation,
and she leads Gifts for Seniors,a local nonprofit striving to improve the
well being of older adults in ourcommunity. Through her consulting practice, Indelible
Aging, she advocates for innovative,inclusive social aging options that honor choices,

(01:19):
preserve dignity, and prioritize human connection. Carolyn is just a wonderful human and
we're so happy to have her herewith us. So let's dive in.
Thank you Carolyn so much for beingwith us today and for being such an
amazing partner. Maybe we could juststart by kicking off with a little bit

(01:42):
about yourself and Gifts for Seniors.Yeah. Absolutely, thank you Tracy for
having me on. We are ahuge fan of hands on Twin Cities,
so I'm thrilled to be here todayand have a visit with you. Gifts
for Seniors we started twenty seven yearsago as a small Hannepin County volunteer program.

(02:04):
People were realizing, especially during theholidays, that there's a lot of
older adults that are isolated, thatdon't have friends or family stopping by,
and so they had started a smallholiday gift drive very similar to Toys for
Tats, but for isolated older adults. And that was our kind of modest
beginning, so to speak. Butsince then we've grown to serve the entire

(02:27):
seven county metro area. In twothousand and eight, Gifts for Seniors rolled
out into its own five O oneC three organization and now we are serving
over seven thousand seniors annually year round. Oh my gosh, that's incredible,
incredible, And what is your rolewithin the organization. Well, I'm our

(02:47):
director here at Gifts for Seniors,but I wear many many hats. We
are a small organization and we relyheavily on our volunteer staff. Absolutely,
how long have you been working withGifts our Seniors. So I'm passionate about
the work we do because of apersonal experience of caring for my own grandmother.

(03:08):
And I saw, even with afamily, caring for her at home,
and you know, with someone thathad some resources, how she struggled
with isolation. So after she hadpassed away in twenty twelve, I was
looking for a way kind of tohonor her memory and was missing her,
especially during the holidays. And that'skind of how I stumbled upon Gifts for

(03:30):
Seniors myself, and so I hadjoined the board and then a few years
later, after I was furloughed frommy finance position, I said, I
approached the board and I said,you know what, I think that we
really could be doing more and providingservices to isolated seniors year round. And
that's when I went back to SaintThomas, got my CFI Fundraising Certificate series

(03:53):
and did some development so that wecan be more of a year round,
robust service too. Are over onehundred and fifty agency partners that we work
with that provide the direct service toseniors. So you're throwing out lots of
numbers like one hundred and fifty pluspartners, seven thousand people served. Just

(04:13):
give people like the real deal,like how how many hats do you wear?
And how many volunteers are involved inthis? Okay, well let me
um, Yeah, there's just twostaff people and really our holiday coordinator is
full time November and December. Soso yeah, I'm i'm, i'm.
I'm working with our volunteer team,especially during the offseason, during the non

(04:38):
holiday season when we have extra support, and trying to do some social media
to keep us out there and kindof post some of the great stories and
photographs, as well as working ondevelopment and you know, finding resources an
additional volunteer infrastructure support to you know, to do the work. I guess

(05:00):
yea. So all the hats,all the scarves, all the jackets,
like whatever you need to be wearing, you're doing all of the things.
So it's incredible what you and allof these volunteers are able to do.
Tell us a little bit, youknow, you touched on it with your
own grandmother. But why is thiswork important in general? I would say
in general, I am, Ithink it's incredibly important because it's a reflection

(05:25):
of who we are as a societyas far as how we care for our
seniors as they age, and youknow, having support systems in place to
have a fulfilled, fulfilled and rewardinglife. I think, you know,
to me actually personally, I reallytruly feel it's a social justice issue as
well. A lot of seniors feelforgotten, and you know often and they

(05:50):
you know, they find themselves inthese positions for a number of different reasons.
And you know, some of itcan be economic if they don't have
the resources to beginning out. Someof it can be health related if they
become homebound. You know, someof the saddest stories are the ones who
have really built a life with apartner and then you know their partner has

(06:10):
passed on, or some of themhave children that might live out of state,
or they might be estranged, youknow, family strained relationships. A
lot of our family structure in generalover the years has shifted somewhat, and
so we're seeing more and more solosin their older years. So obviously this

(06:31):
work has been important before the pandemic. What did it look like pre pandemic.
Yeah, I mean it's been awhirlwind. So pre pandemic, we,
as I mentioned, were somewhat ofan intermediary. So we're working to
raise resources and provide gifts and muchneeded items for isolated seniors and then we

(06:54):
work closely with our partner agencies andwe have a fleet of volunteers to accomplish
that social mission. Sometimes that giftis really the ice breaker to have that
well being check. So we knowthat many older adults struggle with self neglect
and so you know, it canprovide that social check in to make sure

(07:17):
that everything's okay, to try toconnect them to resources, figure out what
they need, trying to get themout and socially engaged. Is really it's
interesting because as a society, we'vekind of built this structure to respond to
health issues as opposed to getting tothe root of why does someone's health sometimes

(07:41):
decline? And socialization is the numberone determinant of our health, and so
we are trying to focus on thatsocial intentional service, But then it's kind
of wrapped around with the other supportiveservices that they might need, whether it's
housing or health or hunger relief,you know, things like that. Absolutely,

(08:01):
So thinking about isolation and then pairingit with pandemic, what were the
compounded effects for the people that youwork with during the course of the last
year. Yeah, it was terrifying. So at first, when everybody went
into lockdown, you know, prepandemic, I worried more about our clients

(08:26):
that were living independently, so they'reyou know, they're kind of they can
be estranged from the outside world ifthey just sit in their home and are
not engaging with their community or anyother folks whatsoever. And then when this
happened, my heart was breaking forall of the seniors that were looking at
four walls, that were stuck intheir rooms. So everything was canceled.

(08:48):
All of their congregate dining, allof their social activities and any community engagement,
you know, groups, things likethat, all of that was han
soled. And really, you know, it took me a couple of weeks
to kind of find my footing andfigure out where does gifts for seniors play

(09:09):
a role in this, because obviouslywe were trying to keep everybody safe and
at that time there was still alot of concern about contamination just from providing
those resources. When the pandemic kickedin, we kind of launched a couple
of programs, one high tech andone low tech. Tablets for seniors to
get tablets into the hands of seniorsthat were capable of learning how to use

(09:31):
the technology, and then cards forseniors, which holds very little, you
know, monetary value, but thesentimental value has been huge and that program
is still going gain busters. We'vebeen getting cards from all over the country,
even internationally from Australia, So tellus more about what does that look
like. So we'll start with thecards. So basically it's what people just

(09:54):
sending messages or tell us how thatprogram looks. Yeah, so it can
kind of it's been everything across theboard. So we have a page on
our website that kind of gives someguidelines. But we've gotten great photography,
handmade cards from photographers, original artwork. But primarily, you know, it's

(10:15):
families and companies trying to do theirpart from home and so they're creating cards
and sharing photographs of their pets,telling stories about how they've been isolating.
Sometimes it's a joke, sometimes it'sa beautiful poem, So it's kind of
everything across the board. And thenwe've also been asking folks, hey,
if you can do a little extra, you know, provide a pack of

(10:39):
cards you haven't written on with asheet of postage stamps so that the seniors
can maybe correspond with someone as well. So pretty easy something basically anybody can
do, right, absolutely, andyou know, pretty inexpensive way to try
to brighten someone's day. I mean, they really the comments that we get

(11:01):
back are just wonderful and how it'schanged their lives and kind of giving them
some extra to give through this terribletime here that we've been experiencing. So
yeah, oh gosh, that's sobeautiful. And you know, at Hands
On Twin Cities, we've helped sortof lead some of those activities and it
has been just so much to seewhat it's like to get a message from

(11:22):
somebody during these times when you wouldn'tbe getting a message. So what an
awesome program and way to pivot quickly. Kudos to you and your team.
How do you even go about distributingthose cards? Yeah, so we you
know, we never really know whatkind of volume will be getting from week
to week, but we have beengetting cards and gift packs out on a

(11:43):
weekly basis pretty much since last April. So in addition to those, we've
been providing some care packs and somesnack packs, you know, whatever we
can do to try to get peoplethrough it. Absolutely. So you also
mentioned another program that you were talkingabout. I mean, I think all

(12:03):
of us have leaned on technology veryvery much during the time of the pandemic.
So how do you go about gettingtechnologies into the hands of seniors and
then how do you go about teachingthem if they don't already know about how
to use it? Yeah, soit's different for everyone. You know,
we have some older adults that haveyou know, you've been using technology in

(12:28):
the last twenty years or so,so they can easily try to pick up
on it. And then there's otherswho might have had positions where they weren't
using technology, and so how dowe try to get some digital navigators to
support them, some volunteers to tryto connect them that way. So we
partnered immediately with Twin Cities Rotorat,which is kind of their Young Professionals group,

(12:54):
and they approached the Rotaries to getfunding. So we got funding to
obtain a bunch of tablets, andthey helped us preload it with apps and
different things that we thought would begood for older adults. And then because
they are exploited often we'd turn offthe in app purchases. Now that's not
to say that we can turn thatback on and get them something else if

(13:16):
they decided they wanted to include somethingelse, and we really jumped on.
You know, a lot of thekids, the younger students were learning from
home, and so a lot ofthe providers had hot spots, free hot
spots throughout the Twin Cities. ButI have to tell you, equitable access
to both, you know, thehardware, the tablets themselves if you can't

(13:37):
afford it, and the internet accessand now that those hot spots have disappeared
has been very challenging. And soI think again, I just think it's
something that's overlooked for older adults thatwe can be doing better. Absolutely,
I guess I hadn't even thought aboutthat. When we're thinking about studs learning

(14:00):
and all of those things for youthin the same sort of pandele how do
we gain that access for seniors aswell? Very interesting issue. Do you
feel like you know what has beenthe feedback for people who have obtained these
tablets, are they like overjoyed withthe experience. It's been life changing,

(14:22):
and you know, some of itis just they're real comfortable plays some of
the mind occupying games, and sowe had downloaded some apps that were specifically
for older adults to keep their mindssharp, active and occupied. And then
the zooming, you know, beingable to see some familiar faces, especially
with some of the community groups ofolder adults. We work with Westminster Church

(14:46):
and their Magnet program that partners withMinneapolis Library Downtown, and so it's a
way for them to meet and stillsee each other. For our Black Nurse
Program partners, they it's been essential. One of our is Phoenix Code and
it's an Asian group that has anadult daycare center. They do four hours

(15:07):
of programming a day on the tablets, which is amazing. So you know,
they log in, they might needsomeone to help them get logged on,
but it's interaction for them Monday throughFriday for four hours a day,
which is huge. Absolutely. Imean when you think about you know,
while we might complain about going fromin person to digital, it's definitely still

(15:30):
that experience and interaction with others thatkeeps us, you know, feeling connected
to the outside world, right soright, And we know those resources are
limited too, so some folks havestarted kind of a library program where they
can check the tablets out, soespecially if they're in Minneapolis public housing or
something where it's an area it canbe shared. Absolutely, absolutely so,

(15:54):
Carolyn. You know, obviously,when we were thinking through the pandemic and
the effect that it's had, it'shighly affected adults over the age of fifty,
and we know here in the TwinCities we have a lot of people
who are disproportionately affected. How doyou see those things play out here in
our community. Yeah, so somepopulations obviously have been affected more dramatically than

(16:21):
others. And I know that nineof the deaths have been with older adults.
So it's just this very vulnerable populationthat we're trying to protect as best
we can. And some of thoseprotections come with additional health issues because isolation
can be so detrimental to health.And I think it's like the first time
that I've seen isolation as an attributingreason on death certificates, which is again

(16:48):
it's just heartbreaking. My heartbreaks thinkingabout all of these folks. We were
intentional about some of the resources andwork that we were doing in the community
as stars who would receive those.During the unrest last summer, we specifically
targeted many of our partners that wereaffected by losing some of their local stores

(17:11):
and different things, or maybe theywere too fearful to leave home, and
so we were providing some hunger andcare you personal care items things like that
to try to get them through that. And then also with the tablets program,
I really kind of started talking toour partners, you know, figuring
out who we could benefit, whocould benefit most from these And one of

(17:33):
our partner organizations is the Boutanese CommunityOrganization in Saint Paul, and they had
to camp all of their citizenship classes, all of their English as a second
language classes because they simply couldn't affordto get the technology to their clients.
And so we partnered with them andmade sure that they'll have those you know,

(17:56):
that technology so that they can't restartthat programming. Wow. So a
lot of different partnerships like how doyou stay connected and plugged into all of
these things that are going on withinthe community related to seniors well, I'm
a huge networker and collaborator, Idon't. I mean, that's that's how
I do it. I mean Itry to keep you know, abreast of

(18:19):
what is happening and where we canpartner and find support for this programming.
I guess the biggest thing is Inever try to reinvent the wheel. So
I figure out what is everybody elsedoing and how can we partner with them
to bring So I never intended tolike start my own programming. You know
who else is doing it. Sowe put together a resource sheet for people

(18:42):
to access free social engagement and educationalresources things like that. So it's more
about seeing what other folks are doing, even even nationally. You know,
I'll Google once in a while justto figure out what folks are doing and
seeing how we can implement it herein the Twin Cities. So how has

(19:03):
this affected sort of the core ofyour programming. So you've mentioned the technology,
You've mentioned the card program. Youknow, I know that Gifts for
Seniors started as like a gift programto get things out. How has that
programming shifted in addition to you know, moving in these other ways. Yeah,
So during our annual holiday gift drive, we get about a couple hundred

(19:26):
blue barrels out into the community andwe're at every Menard's and y'mc and other
companies like Wells Fargo folks that willhost gift drive and that's where a lot
of the resources come for our yearround programming. And this year I was
just petrified that we wouldn't even beable to do that and how could we

(19:47):
kind of respond to that. Wehad a much smaller scale gift drive as
far as giving in person, butwe launched our online gift registries, which
was amazing. I mean, folks, you know, they would just go
online and shop for an item andhave it drop shipped directly to us here.
It gifts for seniors, and itmade a huge difference. I also

(20:07):
think, you know, some peoplefelt more comfortable with that than leaving some
an expensive item in a barrel atMinards or something. But I think,
you know, that's something that willhold on to It's not a you know,
that's something we will take into thenext year too, so that people
can give however they feel most comfortable. You know, we still have our
folks that are shopping year round fordeals and always you want to be able

(20:30):
to drop them off here at theoperations center or in one of the barrels.
So that's one way we pivoted.And then as far as working with
volunteers, we immediately implemented a safetyprotocol as far as keeping everyone safe.
And those two months were very stressfulbecause there's a lot of activity that happens
in November and December, and soI was just trying to keep all of

(20:52):
our volunteers safe, making sure we'rekeeping all of our clients safe. And
thankfully, you know, we nevereven shut down up a small We only
had five people in at a time. Everybody had their own workstation and work
kits so that we weren't sharing items, and so it actually was I kept
asking myself, am I doing theright thing? And when I would talk

(21:12):
to our partners, they're like,no, you don't understand, Like it's
more important than ever that you're doingthis work. So and then along with
those holiday gifts came you know,the social visits, and so that's that's
really our ultimate mission, is thatalleviating that loneliness. So yeah, I'm
thrilled with how our year went onthat end. That's exciting. So what

(21:34):
comes next? So right now,we're rolling out the vaccines, and I
mean it sounds like you've heard hadone like positive thing in this like new
way of providing gifts. You know, what's the future. Do you continue
the card program or where do yougo from here? Yeah? I don't
think we can stop. It's bringingso much joy. So you know,

(21:56):
I have a lead now that's workingwith the Card for Seniors program and it's
always fun every day you know whatshows up and what kind of things are
in the packages. So we're stillcontinuing to distribute those weekly and I don't
think that we'll stop, and aswell as the tablets program, and really
it comes down to funding. Soyou know, I'm continuing to try to

(22:18):
find support for our programs. Unfortunately, less than one percent of the philanthropic
dollars in Minnesota go to senior specificprogramming, which is shocking to me because
with this huge demographic shift, andI think a lot of people think that's
really tied to the boomers and agingwell, but it's actually a permanent shifts.

(22:41):
It will continue beyond the boomer population. Okay, So if I'm listening
right now and a like, maybeI have a family member who could benefit
from services so how do older adultsget tied into the programs? Who are
some of your partners? Yeah,so we partner with a lot. So

(23:02):
my favorite partners are the Black Nurseprograms because they're helping people remain in their
home and you know, avoiding earlynursing home admissions. It's very expensive to
go into a nursing home and youknow, usually your life savings can be
done gone within a year or so, and so you know, implementing some
of the things, putting the servicesin those supportive services in place so that

(23:25):
people can remain at home is critical. And we also work closely with the
senior living facilities throughout the Twin Cities, so like Common Bond and Cassie a
Life some of those other providers.And then we work with a lot of
community organizations, other nonprofits. SoCentral Guzman is one of our partners,
Vietnamese Social Services. I had mentionedthe Boutanese group, So we work with

(23:48):
a lot of folks Keystone that havesenior programming in place, and then we
just try to support them as bestwe can. Good Age Magazine has been
a good partner of ours too.They do a lot of free advertising for
us, and so We do geta lot of calls directly from seniors saying
how can I get signed up?And my goal is always to connect them

(24:08):
to one of our partner agencies.So we don't provide that direct service,
but I want to make sure thatthere's someone checking in on them on a
regular basis. I mean, ifthey're reaching out, then I think there's
a need to get them socially engagedand connected with someone in their community.
And so that's how seniors can workwith us volunteers. We have lots of

(24:30):
great opportunities, and like I mentioned, some of it can even be remotely
from home. I highly recommend thehands on twin Cities platform. It's a
great way. You can search bycosts, or you can put in seniors,
or you can search by a skillset or opportunity. We here in
April are going to be launching anew gift drive specifically focused on some of

(24:55):
the activity kits, you know,the adult coloring books, the cross words,
the who go any arts projects orhobbies, puzzling music, movies,
just again trying to get these folksthrough this time until all of this has
worked out. The CDC just recentlyrelaxed the guidelines now as people are getting

(25:17):
vaccinated, but CMS has not,and so a lot of the population that
we serve will be isolating, long, long beyond the general public, and
so we're still trying to get thingsto folks that are isolating to give them
through it. And so this newkind of mid year gift drive is going

(25:37):
to focus on activities and how wecan support them that way. And what's
CMS for those of us who don'tknow, Oh, yes, of course,
it's for the Centers of Medicare andMedicaid Services, the overreaching authority for
Senior living facilities. Gotcha, gotcha? Okay, So they're adhering to an
entirely different set of man well,not entirely different, but a more stringent

(26:00):
set of right. And that's probablyabout fifty percent of those we serve.
Wow wow Okay, So the bestway for people to get involved would be
too. We post a lot ofgreat volunteer opportunities on Hands on Twin Cities,
but we also have our gift registrieson our website. Our Cards for

(26:22):
Seniors page is on our website.We have a separate page dedicated for the
Tablets for Seniors program as well.And so I would recommend checking out our
website and some of the opportunities wehave available on hands on Twin Cities,
and then following us on social.We do a lot on Facebook. That's
probably our biggest group of followers ison Facebook, and so we will share

(26:45):
some great stories and photographs and thenall of our opportunities or if we have
a community call to action, likejust recently we met Jack who had his
jacket and glove stolen when he wentto the doctor's office, or another gentleman
who collects beer steins, and Iwas like, well, I don't really
have any beer steins, and sohow can we get a couple donated so

(27:07):
that we can kind of brighten hisday. So we're posting things like that
on our Facebook page all the time. That's awesome, so easy, simple
ways for people to make a differencein the life of others. I love
it. I love it. SoCarolyn, what is there anything else that
you feel like our listeners need toknow related to the topic of serving seniors
and just the work that you're doing. I mean, I think the biggest

(27:30):
thing is we're all aging, andso you know, just think about how
when I think about my own futureof how you know, I didn't have
children myself, and so what doesit look like for me to age well
and continue living connected to others inthe community and having a full life.
And so really that's my ultimate goalis to try to advocate for you know,

(27:56):
community, living in community, Iguess, and trying to support seniors
to do that. So I justhighly recommend getting to know your neighbors.
If there's any elderly neighbors on yourblock or in your apartment or condo building,
you know, just reach out andsay hi, check in once in
a while. Like it's such asmall, simple thing to do, but
people get into these situations for alldifferent types of reasons, and I think

(28:19):
it's just human connection that we're allcraving. Even a lot of our volunteers
they're weekly you know, coming inand working with us is kind of like
it's given them a sense of purposein a way to meaningfully give back to
the community and still feel connected duringthis time. Absolutely, guests, well,

(28:41):
thank you so much for all thework that you do in our community
and for your partnership. We justreally appreciate your efforts and thank you for
being with us. Thank you,Tracy truly grateful Keith. Thanks to Carolyn
for joining us for this episode.I love the way that she described how

(29:02):
the way that we care for ourseniors really defines who we are as a
society. Gifts for Seniors supports thousandsof seniors across our community, so we
hope that you'll take the time tovisit their website Gifts for Seniors dot org
to find ways to support them andlearn more. Hands On is fortunate to
have many partners who support seniors,so visit hands On twin Cities dot org

(29:23):
for more opportunities and to learn more. Whether you deliver meals, give a
gift, become a phone companion,or literally just hold someone's hand, every
single one of those things matter somuch. We can give the people who
walk before us care, love andrespect and hope that the generations that follow
us will do the same. Thankyou so much for listening. For more

(29:49):
information about hands On Twin Cities andto follow us on social media, head
to our website. Redefining Volunteerism isa production of Matriarch Digital Media executive producer
twil A Day and producer and editorBess Gibbs, and special thanks to Sarah
Edwards Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane fromsome great people. Let's get out there

(30:11):
and be the change. Together wecan build a more equitable and thriving community