Curry Senior Center, a long-time Metta Fund community partner and grantee, is using a peer outreach model to combat isolation and connect Tenderloin residents to vital social and medical services.
In their peer outreach program, older adults help their peers with tasks such as navigating homeless shelter websites to be placed on the waitlist, visiting the DMV to get an ID, and going to Curry’s health clinic. This model is beneficial for both the Curry client and the peer assisting them—as peer Anil Sukhram shares, “I need Boris [the Curry client] as much as he needs me… Helping him gets me out of depression because I feel needed.”
Social isolation has been linked to negative health outcomes such as heart disease, depression, and early death. As America’s elderly population grows, this issue will only become more critical.
Learn more about Curry’s work in their newsletter.