Michael Kraft
Maggie Kraft’s mother gave her daughter this advice: take classes from the best teachers. Maggie then met an eccentric, passionate advocate running an ombudsman program and thought “I can learn lots from him.” This proved to be a pivotal step in her journey to becoming the Executive Director of the Area 1 Agency on Aging. She ran Redwoods Ombudsman, worked at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center and served in the Peace Corps. After 18 months in Africa with the Peace Corps, she was recruited to her current position.
Back then, she was asked frequently why there is more than one organization serving seniors. That question is less common now, given our greying population. I’d also say that this is one of those things where the advice “don’t get me started” applies. Suffice it to say: as with programs for youth and animals, they serve different niches and needs. A1AA focuses on things like support for aging in place, long term care ombudsman services and health insurance counseling and advocacy.
And how are seniors doing in Humboldt? They are not a monolith. If they have money and good health, things tend to be great. Bad health + no money = a very challenging situation. The average person’s Social Security is not very much and, for many, that’s most to all of their income.
Our discussion ranged across a wide range of issues facing seniors.
- Maggie says that we’ve been used to expecting the government to solve these problems, but they never have. And government can’t be aware enough of who we are to provide properly designed fixes. Community matters.
- Most care for seniors is provided by family, typically women, often at the expense of those family members’ earnings.
- Downsizing homes in old age makes sense but is problematic. There just aren’t enough quality smaller/cheaper homes here to make it work.
- We need to consider more nuanced disaster planning for seniors. The access & functional needs include things like how does someone evacuated in a disaster who needs a wheelchair or walker navigate from a cot to the bathroom across a large building?
In recent months, the funding situation didn’t improve, but it became more definite. A1AA’s core funding is from the Older Americans Act, a 1965 law that funded services that wrapped around Social Security and Medicare. It was never well funded and hasn’t kept up with ballooning baby boomer retirees or inflation. The state matches some of those federal funds, but state matching funds get formulaically reduced when federal funds are reduced. Recent cuts to MediCal and to SNAP/CalFresh supplemental nutrition program affect many seniors. Bottom line, says Maggie: we’re going to have to rearrange. A lot depends on what the state decides as it crafts budgets in the coming months.
But if you’re in her shoes, regardless of the fact that we don’t know where money will come from a year from now for people to eat, they still need to eat today. The federal bills passed in the summer are designed so that a number of programs are cut one or more years out (many, tellingly, kick in after the next election). So, for now, A1AA staff keep on keeping on.
It’s likely that, over the coming months and years, the Area 1 staff will be shrinking. They will need additional volunteers to be ombudsmen, assist patients with Medicare and MediCal hoops, serve as drivers to deliver people to medical appointments, lead exercise programs, and teach digital literacy–which is now a must to get through Social Security. Interested folks can complete the volunteer app at https://a1aa.org/interestform/ or call 707-442-3763. “Our volunteer jobs are serious and our volunteers amazing,” Maggie notes.
When I ask about donations, Maggie deadpans “large, unmarked bills, please.” You can donate online, write a check or attend the event “Young at Heart” the evening of Wednesday, October 1, at the Arcata Playhouse (https://a1aa.org/youngatheart/).
Maggie Kraft and I are not related. It’s sometimes assumed that we are husband and wife, but no. Our names are close enough that Maggie (M. Kraft in the phone book when we had phone books) received calls from people looking for me. I would get emails at work intended for her (our addresses were both along the lines of [?subject=&body=]mkraft@nonprofityplace.org). It’s perhaps inevitable that we came to call each other “my brother from another mother” and “my sister from another mister.”
Maggie wants you to know that “we’re here to help people, but we can’t do it without the community.” Volunteer, donate, take care of yourselves and your neighbors & family. You know, help my sister out.
Good Work is a series written by Michael Kraft, who volunteers on behalf of the Northern California Association of Nonprofits (NorCAN). NorCAN supports connections between people and organizations that work every day to keep our communities healthy and strong by offering professional development, board support, networking connections and more. Learn more at https://norcal-nonprofits.org/. To nominate a deserving nonprofit organization to be profiled, email michael@kraftconsultants.com.
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