Funds Renewed for Teaneck’s Inclusive Healthy Communities Initiative

Community Begins at Home, an initiative that The Bright Side Family launched two years ago to address the needs of older Teaneck residents with disabilities, has been awarded two more years of state funding.

A new grant from the New Jersey Division of Disability Services of the Department of Human Services will support the outreach, education and advocacy activities of this Teaneck-focused initiative - part of the state’s Inclusive Healthy Communities program.

“This is not only good news for our nonprofit, said Elizabeth Davis, executive director of The Bright Side Family. “It is a testament to Teaneck’s commitment to being a welcoming place for people of all ages and all abilities.”

Community Begins at Home is run in tandem with the 9-year-old Age-Friendly Teaneck community initiative, and the Township of Teaneck is an active partner in both efforts.

“We want to extend our thanks to The Township Manager and Township Council for their pledge to continuing working together to ensure older residents with disabilities are safe and supported in their homes and fully engaged in community life,” Davis said.

According to U.S. Census numbers, about 1,700 Teaneck residents over age 65 report having one or more disabilities. The aim of Community Begins at Home is to address some of the major risk factors faced by those residents, such as safety barriers in the home, increased risk of social isolation and a lack of access to resources that could help them remedy those challenges.

Over the past two years, staff of The Bright Side Family has worked to gather information about older residents with disabilities and their family caregivers through a survey, focus groups, home safety assessments, one-on-one visits, and referrals.

“We’ve held presentations about this initiative to government groups and local faith organizations, and we’ve created new informational handouts and added a spotlight on disability resources in each of our monthly Age-Friendly Teaneck newsletters,” Davis said. “We also hosted a Home Safety Expo and a Connections Fair to help educate residents about resources available to address their aging-in-place challenges.”

A chief goal is to raise consciousness about the health and social challenges of residents aging with disabilities – both those who have had lifelong disabilities and those who have aged into vision loss, hearing loss, mobility loss or other disabling conditions.

“We’ve learned through this work that many older residents who have aged into having a disability don’t self-identify as having a disability,” said EJ Vizzi, director of senior programs for The Bright Side Family. “That can translate into a lack awareness of benefits and resources available to them, such as assistance paying for hearing aids or help getting a ramp or safety bars installed in their homes.”

Likewise, those who’ve long had disabilities often face new challenges as they age and need help navigating the older adult programs and services that could assist them in aging-in-place and remaining active in the community.

Another challenge is that many of the agencies and organizations that assist older adults and those that assist people with disabilities often don’t work in tandem with one another – creating what are in effect “separate silos” of information and services.

As the Community Begins at Home initiative moves ahead, key focus areas will include:

• Recruiting Teaneck residents with disabilities to serve as advisors to this initiative and to act as “ambassadors” for specific disability communities. These advisers would be compensated for their time.
• Working with Township leaders to ensure residents always have an option to participate virtually through Zoom or other technologies in important Township meetings and events and to equip our Council Chambers, public library and other meeting spaces with hearing loop systems – technology that will be essential in future years to address rapidly rising rates of hearing loss.
• Empaneling a disability justice advisory board to make sure the unique perspectives of people with disabilities and their caregivers help shape Teaneck’s vision for the future.

“We hope to increase awareness in the community about the challenges that some of their neighbors routinely face, but our ultimate goal is to ensure that residents with disabilities have a voice in shaping progress and policies in Teaneck,” Vizzi said.  “The motto of the Disability Justice movement is ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us,’ and we intend to uphold that principle.”
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Anyone interested in learning more about or participating in the Community Begins at Home initiative can email [email protected] or call 201-530-6756.