CGS Board of Directors - Meeting 2.18.2014
Hi ,
Hope you're having a good week! We're getting ready for our BOD meeting on Tuesday and we have a couple of items for your review:
1. The agenda for our meeting on 2.18.2014. Download here.
2. Below you'll find what we've accomplished since our last Board meeting. Please familiarize yourself with these as we will make reference to them during the meeting.
3. List of our current contributors, topics, and description of our audience. Download the topics here. And download the contributors here.
Our meeting will be held at 31 W 21st Street #4 New York, NY 10010 at 6.30pm. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.
See you soon!
Alexandra Axel
Secretary of the Board
The Caregiver Space
Updates Since Last BOD Meeting
Partnership with Lynda Shrager, OTR, MSW, CAPS
Occupational therapist columnist (The Organized Caregiver) based in upstate NY. Will be producing short video segments (Senior Moments) about healthy ways to help the person you care for get in/out of bed, shower etc.
Partnership with Meals to Heal
New York based healthy meal delivery service founded by Susan Bratton designed to support the nutritional needs of oncology patients and their caregivers. Will be running a blog exchange where we will receive articles about nutrition. Will also be running webinars to educate our community about nutrition and self-care practices led by oncology nurses and nutritionists.
Partnership with Yosaif August- Yes to Life Coaching
Life coach and author based in Philadelphia who focuses on preventing caregiver burnout. Currently developing content for a video series focused on recruiting the help you need.
Partnership with Joanna Lillian Brown
Bereavement expert and author of “Caring for Dying Loved Ones: A Helpful Guide for Families and Friends.” Authors monthly submissions on addressing end of life issues for caregivers.
Partnership with Irene Gouge
Owner of Loving Lessons, sleep coach based in North Carolina. Upcoming video series exchange offering tips for caregivers to help integrate healthy sleep practices into their lives.
Caregiver Chat biweekly with Christine M. Valentin, LCSW
New York based social worker who focuses almost exclusively on caregivers. Will be facilitating a biweekly Monday night chat online. See our first one here.
Exploring chat partnership with Marj Haas, MA, MSW, LCSW
Arizona based social worker with person and professional experience working with caregivers. Currently leading a melanoma caregiver group. Made contact this past week. Potentially will be a regular facilitator.
Exploring chat partnership with Megan Bonstein Christ, LMSW
Brooklyn based social worker at a caregiver support center. Will be running her first facilitated chat in the next month. Ms. Bonstein Christ is experimenting with whether this format works for her.
Introduction of The Page Listens
Writing is one of the most important tools for caregivers to find relief from feelings of loneliness, frustration and anger. In the isolation of caregiving, the page will always listen. In this web series, Adrienne discusses writing strategies and projects designed specifically for caregivers. Watch here.
Featured on CCTV Global
Occupational therapist, Lynda Shrager (see above) had us featured on her recent TV interview about caregivers. Watch the clip here.
New Years and Christmas Chats
Adrienne hosted several chats throughout the holidays. Attendance hovered around 3-4 people for each chat. All members of chat expressed gratitude and appreciation for the chat function.
Therabead Giveaway
Just Home Medical donated a microwavable heat pack to give away to caregivers. We got about 80 submissions.
Book Giveaway
Rick Lauber of Caregivers Guide for Canadians donated his book to giveaway to our audience. We got about 45 submissions.
Google Non-Profits
Among other benefits, Google for Nonprofits grants us access to:
YouTube Nonprofit Program.
Free, enriched version of YouTube just for nonprofits
Drive viewers to action by placing a Call-to-Action overlay directly on your videos
Customize the look & feel of your channel with your organization’s logo and branding
Google Ad Grants
Promote your organization’s website on Google with in-kind AdWords advertising
Raise awareness by choosing relevant keywords and creating unique ads to highlight your work
Track online donations, newsletter sign-ups, volunteer registrations and more so you can see what’s working and what’s not
Promote your organization’s website on Google with in-kind AdWords advertising
Sirovich Center Event
Working with our PhysED contributor, Dr. Edward Jackowski, we held our first video recorded outreach effort at the Sirovich Senior Center last month. Edward led an hour long recorded seminar titled “Escape Your Age” and it was well attended, approximately 50 people. We will be posting the content on our site soon. Our plan is to run these types of event 3-4 times per year.
Pending language approval for donated gifts through Public Health Solutions
We negotiated with our fiscal sponsor to allow us to solicit tax deductible gifts. Pending final edits on the language of our solicitations we will now be able to pursue gifts for our community to promote engagement and provide more tangible relief. We are still brainstorming types of gifts that would best support caregivers. We’ve come up with heating pads, journals, gift certificates. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions about types of businesses and specific products worth pursuing. Note: we are only able to solicit goods (not services) and they must originate from businesses located within the following states: NY, CA, CT, DC, FL, IL, MI, MN, NJ, PA, WI
Pending grant copy proposal approval through PHS
A grant proposal outlining a four month outreach campaign to drive new members to the site is pending language review by our fiscal sponsor. Once that receives final approval, we will begin submitting grants to the 10-15 foundations we’ve identified that are interested in supporting health and community projects.
Guest blog posts
We have standing relationships with the following organizations and have exchanged several blog posts with: Zarzand; Meals to Heal; Nonprofit MarCommunity; When They Get Older; and Intentional Caregiver
Ongoing outreach
Jonah continues to do outreach with caregiver and caregiver aligned organizations he identifies along with hospitals, caregiver support groups, area agencies on aging, and more.
Increasing number of facilitated chats
Our goal in the next few months is to develop a stable of social workers who will enable us to offer at least one chat per week. Ultimately that vision will expand to include daily chats. We welcome your support by introducing us to colleagues who are social workers, counselors, therapists etc who would be willing to contribute an hour once a month to lead a chat.