Organizations
Efficient implementation
Support your community
Senior Link stands for Seniors Living In Neighborhood Kindness. The goal of our nonprofit project is to reduce social isolation by enabling seniors to receive messages and telephone calls from youth and/or volunteers, which helps seniors feel more connected and less lonely.
The Senior Link web app facilitates the whole process. Coordinators are able to set up a group of volunteers in their community. They can then reach out to seniors and add them to the group. Volunteers are assigned to seniors and can create their calling schedule. After the call, the volunteer can report possible needs of the senior to the coordinator.
Our project was a finalist in the Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology to Address Loneliness & social isolation, MENTAL Challenge, an initiative proposed by the Administration for Community Living and other partners.
Community Coordinators can start their Senior Link group by signing up in our web app at https://senior.link/app - the Senior Link web app is completely free.
We are now helping to set up new groups for senior communities. Please contact us if you have isolated seniors that may be interested in Senior Link by emailing us at info @ senior.link today!
Make a difference!
Create a group (private or public)
Invite, approve, and manage volunteers
Assign seniors and monitor progress
Schedule calls or create a call plan
See Calendar and seniors to call
Log calls and report possible needs
The use of the web app is optional
See group info and call schedule
Access resources for reducing isolation
Background
In a time of a global pandemic, it is important to connect with seniors as they face social isolation. Many of them do not have much family left and face loneliness. It is our job to bring them back into the community. I was a part of a project with Saint Thomas of Canterbury Church called 4:Twelve Senior Connect in which volunteers called seniors to help them with their needs and reduce their loneliness. The program strongly impacted me and I wanted to make an application to facilitate the project management as I knew that the Coordinator had put many hours in to making it happen. I contacted Optimal Aging, a source of information for older citizens and their families, and Senior Link was born under the mentorship of Stanford Emeritus Professors Dr. Dolores Gallagher-Thompson and Dr. Larry Thompson. Senior Link is my contribution to reducing the senior social isolation in our society!
Special thanks to St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, in particular to Ms. Lucy Chai, Youth Minister, who was instrumental in this endeavor. Our appreciation also goes to Dr. Gallagher-Thompson and Dr. Thompson for their valuable support. Additionally, thanks to the seniors that took part in this project and inspired us. Speaking to seniors in our community and connecting with others is empowering. Connect with those in your community today!