Grant will support our efforts to help older adults stay in their homes longer

The Colorado Visiting Nurse Association just received an amazing grant from the NextFifty Initiative to support our CAPABLE program. The nearly $48,000 grant will support our work under the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) funding. Specifically, it will help with program management, and the matching funds we must provide as part of our DRCOG commitments for this first-of-its-kind program.

CAPABLE, which stands for Community Aging in Place – Advancing Better Living for Elders, was developed by the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Its goal is to demonstrate that with modest investments in short-term interventions, older adults can remain in their homes longer, improve health outcomes, and decrease medical costs. 

Our program meant to demonstrate the benefits of keeping adults independent, longer is the first for a community-based organization in a home health setting. A safe home environment is the first step to this mission, but many clinicians overlook this setting as important to older adults’ health outcomes. The CAPABLE program provides 10 visits to the home, six with an occupational therapist and four with a nurse. 

Clients identify self-care goals they’d like to address. Goals range from walking to the mailbox, doing laundry, or showering; they all empower our clients to continue living safely and independently. 

NextFifty Initiative’s recognition of CAPABLE and Colorado VNA’s dedication to serving older adults with this grant shows our leadership in this area. NextFifty is a Colorado-based private foundation dedicated to funding mission-driven initiatives that improve the lives of the older adult population and their caregivers. It seeks to fund game-changing efforts to improve and sustain quality of life for people in their second 50 years.

Colorado VNA thanks our own Sarah Berg, Colleen Morton and Amanda Goodenow for supporting this grant application and for supporting our growth of CAPABLE!