Back to ACoA Annual Report

McKinley Kell of the Aquarian Charter School in Anchorage and Rosalie Priest play bingo at the Mabel T. Caverly Senior Center. (Photo by Senior Voice.)

The Alaska Commission on Aging partners with nonprofit organizations statewide in 110 Alaskan communities to provide Nutrition, Transportation, and Support Services (NTS). NTS grants federal dollars and state general funds. The Older Americans Act is the federal mechanism that provides both funding and guidelines to states for services to eligible seniors. Through NTS, many Alaskans age 60 and older receive essential but minimal support services that enable seniors to live independently for as long as possible.

Local senior service agencies and organizations that receive NTS grants are required to identify and serve low-income, minority, disabled, frail, and isolated seniors in their service areas who are most in need of NTS services. A community’s NTS services include any combination of congregate and/or home-delivered meals, transportation, outreach, information and assistance, homemaker and chore services, preventive health services, Foster Grandparent, Senior Companion, and/or Retired Senior Volunteer Program services. The Commission’s NTS grants also fund available statewide services such as Senior Voice, a monthly information and education newspaper for seniors. Limited legal services for seniors are also supported with NTS funding on a statewide level to assist seniors with personal and legal matters. All NTS services endeavor to support the health, dignity, respect, and independence of older Alaskans.

Just as important as the funding that supports seniors’ health and wellbeing are the many dedicated community agencies and workers that see their relationship to seniors as more than a job. Their commitment continues to support an ever-increasing number of seniors with an increasing number of issues, though federal and state funding for these services has generally not increased. The ingenuity and additional resources generated by community senior service agencies in Alaska continues to reach out to those seniors most at risk for health and quality of life issues.

The Older American’s Act mandates that senior service agencies and organizations cannot charge seniors 60 and over a fee for the NTS services they receive. However, they can encourage seniors to contribute toward these services. Senior donations are an important additional resource to the NTS programs as the donations are reassigned to the NTS services.

SAMS implementation: The Commission began the SAMS (Social Assistance Management System) software implementation project in FY99. In FY00, the Commission sponsored training sessions for 14 grantee organizations from across the State. During FY00, the NTS grantees entered their clients and the services received, and prepared their systems to begin collecting data beginning July FY01. The implementation has proved to be a challenging process for everyone involved. However, once totally implemented, the data received from ACoA grantees will assist the Commission in defining a true picture of who is being serviced, what services are received, and where services are being received. By the end of FY01, 21 grantee organizations will be able to submit their SAMS data reports via email to the ACoA.

The nutritional risk information gathered in this data will assist ACoA in evaluating the effectiveness of the NTS programs over time and be the first step in developing a comprehensive data management system for Commission programs.

Next Section: Home and Community-Based Services
Back to ACoA Annual Report