JABA ANNOUNCES POSSIBLE CUTS IN SERVICE

March 04, 2010

Press Contact:

            Elyse Thierry

            ethierry@jabacares.org

            (434) 817-5236

            Kate Callender

Executive Assistant to the CEO

kcallender@jabacares.org

(434) 817-5238

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JABA ANNOUNCES POSSIBLE CUTS IN SERVICE

Pending county and state funding cuts combine with downturn in donations to force hard choices for agency serving some of the area’s most vulnerable.

Charlottesville, VA (March 4, 2010)—- The loss of one senior center, staff cut backs at another, and fewer meals and fewer beds for extremely low-income elders, these are a few of the hard choices now being considered by JABA’s administration. Driving the decisions are cuts from multiple funding sources –  including a significant drop in private funding and a projected decrease of support from the State – made all the more severe by a proposed $14,024 reduction in funding from Albemarle County. Coupled with the end of the agency’s one-time federal stimulus funding of $18,917 and a 15 percent downturn in donations, the county’s proposed cut back will result in JABA having about $100,000 less to use for service in the county.

Cost-cutting measures now under consideration for JABA’s services in Albemarle include: 

• Keswick Community Center – Closed: One of JABA’s original senior centers opened in 1975, the Keswick Center serves 20 members. Their closest alternative is the Scottsville Center.  

• Scottsville Community Center – Reduced staff:  Let go one of the two current staff members, leaving one staff person to serve 55 people who currently attend this active center.

• Adult Care Center – Reduced number of scholarships:  Alternatives for those needing assistance are few, including loved ones staying home alone or institutionalization.

• Congregate and Home Delivered Meals Program – Cut 1,000 meals:  The hot, freshly made lunches eaten among friends at JABA’s centers and the balanced, easy-to-use packaged meals delivered by friendly volunteers can be the only truly nutritious meals available to these seniors.

• Mountainside Senior Living – Reduced number of very low-income beds: Mountainside is Central Virginia’s primary affordable assisted living facility. Cuts will add to the waiting list for scholarship supported units.

“We’re making none of these choices lightly,” says Gordon Walker, CEO of JABA. “They are the consequences of less revenue from a variety of sources. Should the county’s current proposed budget become reality, it will be yet another cut in funding, and one that will require difficult decisions to be made. JABA has been and continues to be a prudent and conservative user of its financial resources. For every dollar of county support we receive, we have brought in $7.39 from other sources. Our staff continues to take on more and more responsibility in response to more and more persons looking for help. We know local governments are fiscally challenged like never before, but we are asking that some of the county’s most vulnerable – older people living alone, the very poor and the very ill – not be the victims of the budget cuts.”

About JABA

JABA (the Jefferson Area Board for Aging) serves the city of Charlottesville, and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson. JABA cares about all aspects of senior and intergenerational welfare. The nonprofit organization works to promote, establish and preserve sustainable communities for healthy aging that benefit individuals and families of all ages.

For information on JABA and answers to other aging related questions, contact JABA at (434) 817-5222 or visit the Web site www.jabacares.org.

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3/4/10