Southern Brooklyn has one of America's highest concentrations of senior citizens. Many live on fixed, low incomes and suffer from some degree of functional impairment. To alleviate their special problems, the Council offers a program of integrated, community-based services which enable the aged to prolong independence and dignity. This program has, since 1981, brought coordinated health and social services to the ever growing numbers of "near-poor" - chronically ill, homebound senior citizens whose incomes marginally exceed Medicaid eligibility, leaving them too poor to purchase their own services for help with daily living. In addition, seniors who receive Medicaid benefits are eligible for supplementary assistance not provided under current Medicaid regulations.

The Council's programs help defer the need for costly institutionalization by enabling the frail elderly to remain in their own homes. This stabilizes neighborhoods while saving the taxpayer enormous sums in avoided nursing home costs.

Housekeeping: Provides assistance with essential activities of daily living including light house-keeping, laundry and meal preparation in order to maintain a clean, safe living environment.

Transportation: Provides transportation to medical, shopping, banking, social/recreational and related sites to elderly residents of an area encompassing Coney Island, Brighton Beach, BensonHurst, Borough Park, Kensington, Bay Ridge, Flatbush and Sheepshead Bay.

Specialized services under this program include:
Crime Victimized Elderly Transportation: Helps elderly residents of high-crime areas with their essential shopping.

Sight/hearing Impaired Transportation: Helps mainstream the disabled elderly who are entirely isolated and cut off from the community. The program enables them to reach social, educational and creative activities, and access counseling and entitlement assistance programs.

Specialized Medical Transportation: Elderly patients requiring medical specialists in other boroughs are provided round-trip transportation for treatment.

Senior Center Programs: Provides congregate meals (breakfast and lunch), case assistance, benefits counseling and a broad array of educational, health-promotion and recreational services (such as exercise, arts and crafts, music, trips and inter-generational activities) at three southern Brooklyn senior centers. These centers serve close to 1,000 meals daily to a multy-ethnic population, and are for many their only source of hot, nutritious meals. In addition, English as a Second Language (ESL) courses have been provided to enhance communication between the substantial refugee and minority population in our centers.

Friendly Visiting: Provides socialization whole creating an opportunity to monitor the health, safety and general welfare of the homebound elderly.

Telephone Reassurance: Routine phone contact to reduce isolation and provide comfort to homebound older adults.

Shopping: Assistance to the elderly who are shopping-handicapped owing to physical disabilities and/or fear of crime.

Escort: Personal accompaniment and assistance to enable independent functioning/living by older persons who cannot travel alone due to mobility or mental/emotional problems.

Case Assistance: Short-term information/referral assistance or intervention for elderly persons unable to access services and benefits to which they are entitled.

Educational Lectures: Providing vital information to the elderly through classes, forums and seminars on proper health practices, access to health services, mental health issues, crime prevention, financial management, legal and consumer affairs, eligibility and access to senior services and entitlements.
Intergenerational Programs: This program fosters interracial and intergenerational communication by recruiting local students for telephone reassurance, home visiting, shopping, escort, educational and arts programs for our homebound elderly.

Ida Israel Memorial Fund: A special fund in memory of the indefatigable community leader Ida G. Israel provides emergency assistance to the frail, low income elderly of our communities. Mrs. Israel, who perished in a fire in 1985, single-handedly brought relief to many of Coney Island's aged.