105 Senior Centers in NYC are being threatened
By · Comments105 Senior Centers in NYC are being threatened with closing, due to the proposed title xx cuts.
What can you do to try to stop the senior centers from closing? Last night the PESID, People Empowering Senior Independence, group met. We had representatives at the meeting from Council Member Domenic M. Recchia Jr. Office, along with representatives from Assembly Member Peter Abbate Jr. and Assembly Member Alec Brook-Krasny. All of these elected officials had there thoughts represented, and wish to let us know they want to help and they do not favor the title xx, cuts forcing 105 Senior Centers to Close.
1. Send out the letter attached and please make sure to fill in all the spaces.
letter to elected officials no to title xx cuts no to closing 105 NYC senior centers
2. Look at the attached lists for senior centers that are closing. These list are broken down, according to either a Senator, Assembly Member, or Council Member who’s district has a center that is closing.
Check this link to see who your representative is for each senior center.
Check this link to see who your representative is for each senior center.
3. Send the letter to each Elected Official for your area or any additional letters you feel you would like your voice heard in. Just make sure to send the letters to the Elected Officials in your area, as well.
list of addresses for elected officials with senior centers closing in their district
I would love it if someone has a list of Council Members with addresses they could send me.
4. Everyone who is concerned should also send the letter to Governor Cuomo.
You may also contact the Governor’s office by phone (518) 474-8390 or mail:
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
105 NYC Senior Centers Potentially Slated to Close
By · CommentsOn April 1, the new budget will go into effect. Millions of dollars in funds will be cut from Title 20 of the NY budget. Title 20 monies are partially used to fund NY Senior Centers. According to Senator Golden, these monies have been allocated as part of the budget for decades. He also said “if these funds are cut it will be extremely difficult to get them back.”
These funds that are scheduled to be cut on April 1, 2011 will potentially cause 105 NY Seniors Centers to Close.
Check the list for the Senior Center in your neighborhood that might potentially close.
The PESID, People Empowering Seniors Independence & Dignity, group will be meeting tomorrow in Bay Ridge Brooklyn. I’m the Founder of the PESID group, and we are urging folks to come out and discuss these cuts that will certainly be catastrophic. Senior Centers are a vital resource for many of our seniors. Senior Centers provide meals, counseling, socialization and so much more. These cuts will effect more than 10,000 seniors in our city.
If you would like to join us tomorrow and let your voice be heard just RSVP at this link. If you are not a member you will need to sign up for your free membership and then RSVP. PESID, People Empowering Senior Independence & Dignity.
You can also find additional info regarding the potential closing of 105 senior centers at this specific links,
DFTA, Department for the aging
NY1
105 Senior Centers Slated To Close
See the pdfs attached with the list of centers and the elected official for that district. There are 3 lists, Senators, Council Members, Assembly Members, indicating the elected officials for each of the centers.
Title-XX-senior-center-closings-NYS-Senate
New York will you be able to heat your homes?
By · CommentsNew York, NY with oil prices going up and up, you have to wonder what it will cost to heat your home.
We have programs in place to helps folks in the city. HEAP home energy assistance is available, however it is not much when you look at the thousands it usually costs to heat a home.
I had a friend send me an email regarding a place called Bakken Shale located in the United States, where there we have a abundance of oil. This was initially reported back in 2006. I just don’t understand why our oil prices are going up when this abundance exists. Here is a link to the info Bakken Shale. What do you think?
More Medicare cuts to low income seniors
By · CommentsI received a letter today from the JASA organization. This is a fantastic organization. As a matter of fact I just recently, Fall 2010, graduated from their IFSA, Institute For Senior Action, training class. The great part about that is it puts me on a list of people who are notified when good and bad things are coming down the pike for seniors. Lately I feel like I’m bring you a lot of info that seems discouraging. What’s important here is these cuts have not taken place yet. So here is a copy of that letter with some links to the various organizations involved. We must contact our elected officials in writing and let them know we strongly disagree with these cuts to senior services. These cuts will only have a very negative affect on seniors. You should also call AARP and find out just what this all means to you.
O.K. here is the letter I received.
AARP’s EPIC toll-free number is now operational and anyone concerned about the future of EPIC is encouraged to use it. It will connect people to their state legislators.
The number is 1-800-700-6469.
SAVE EPIC!!
200,000 Older New Yorkers will Lose EPIC Coverage Under Cuomo Budget
New York StateWide Senior Action Council urges seniors, their families and caregivers and the 300,000 older New Yorkers who are enrollees in the EPIC program (Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage) to call their state legislators in their district offices this week while they are not in session in Albany to protest Governor Cuomo’s phasing out of the program. The EPIC program started in 1987 but for lower income seniors has served as a supplement to the Medicare Part D program since that program began in 2006. Governor Cuomo’s budget eliminates EPIC coverage except for drugs not paid in the Medicare donut hole. An estimated 200,000 of the 300,000 EPIC enrollees do not reach the Medicare donut hole or coverage gap which begins when a senior has spent $2840 in annual drug costs. Under Cuomo’s plan, they would not longer receive any support from EPIC.
EPIC has been paying the Medicare deductible and premium costs for lower income New Yorkers as well as subsidizing the co-payments. The elimination of that support will cost enrollees as much as $1000 per year or more, despite the Governor’s pledge to not support new taxes or fees.
EPIC was passed in December 1986 and signed into law by Governor Mario M. Cuomo.
We should be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the passage of EPIC this year, not joining the Governor Andrew Cuomo in preparing for its demise.
If you need phone numbers for your legislators’ district office or for more information contact Maria Alvarez, Executive Director, at maconsult@aol.com or respond to this StateWide e-news email address.
Mary Clark
Citizen Action of NY
HCAN/SSS NYS Coordinator
cabing@citizenactionny.org
607-723-0110
607-232-2084 (cell)
Is in your head or in your thyroid?
By · CommentsFor several years I have had a slow thyroid. I have often wondered what causes this. I have been taking synthroid to help the situation. I just happened to have a couple of minutes when I decided to do a search on community recipes. Far from a search on thyroid issues. There was an advertisement on the page asking a similar question to the one above. It was an entire article about how most of us lack iodine and this is why we have so many folks with a slow thyroid. Iodine is a mineral that is hard to get from food supplements. I’m attaching a link for the article, I’m sure you will find it just as interesting. The article was written by Andrew Jones, MD
Senior Medical Advisor, Women’s Health Institute of Texas
Be well my friends
NY Senior Centers are about to be slashed.
By · CommentsMore than 100 senior centers in NY state are scheduled to close. Our budget deficit is so large that drastic cuts need to be made. These cuts will especially impact those who had a well balance meal at the senior centers. NY Senior Centers also provide a place for folks to congregate and socialize. So many programs will be in danger. What about the social workers located at these senior centers. Not only will the Social Workers be out of a job, seniors will not have them as a resource. Senior centers provide access to many needs based programs available throughout our state. Without the Senior Centers and their staff many of our Seniors would not even no where to begin to get help.
This past Thursday I attended a conference called
by Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis, and Senator Marty Golden, at the Bay Ridge
Community Center, regarding cut backs that could end up going into effect on April 1, 2011.
Also in attendence was Bobby Sackman, Director of Public Policy for the
Council of Senior Centers and Services. The budget cuts
proposed by Govenor Andrew Cuomo would move 25 million dollars in funds, in title 20 of NY
State Budget from Senior Centers to Child Welfare. Thus pitting Children against
Seniors. The result if these NY State budget cuts go into effect, would mean the closing
of 110 Senior Centers State wide and of those 33 % would be in the NYC area. This is
an outrage. These monies have been allocated to title 20 for nearly 30 years.
These are not a part of the budget listed as an entitlement and therefore they are not
guaranteed. According to Senator Golden "if we loose these funds it would be
highly unlikely for us to ever gain them back." This is extremely critical to the
quality of life our seniors have. The senior population is about to explode over the next
couple of decades. We should be adding senior centers and programs, not shutting
them down.
Executive Director JoAnn Mason of the Senior Center, said last year they wrote 300 of the
17,000 letters received to stop the senior center cuts. Executive Director Mason now
pledges 600 letters from the member of the Center. How many letters will you pledge to
make happen?????????
Please take action and send letters immediately to your elected officials, saying no to the title
20 cuts for senior centers. Please post a link to this info and spread the word before it is
too late.
Thank you
Annette Fisher
Certified Senior Advisor
Golden Maturity, Inc.
LTC, Long Term Care Insurance are you prepared?
By · CommentsMost don’t prep for LTC outlays
Sixty-five percent of Americans say they believe that long-term care planning is an important
cost-saving action. But only 44% of them have started taking any steps to prepare for
unanticipated costs, according to a new consumer study from Lincoln Financial.
A common mistake, according to read
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