New York has a statewide program designed to help residents who need help with long-term care. It’s called NY Connects and various organizations are contracted to work with the city, in each borough, to help New Yorkers of all ages get assistance with long-term care services and supports for family members.
Part of the New York City Department for the Aging, NY Connects is aimed at having community and government agencies work together to provide any social services people need.
In Manhattan, the multi-service community agency Hudson Guild has this task. Hudson Guild is an old-school social service agency, created in the Chelsea neighborhood in the 1890s to help the city’s burgeoning immigrant community who often found themselves living in crowded tenements.
Today, Hudson Guild’s programming continues its focus on adult services, mental health services, early childhood education, youth development, and workforce development for residents located from Chelsea all the way up to 53rd Street. And now, under its partnership with NY Connects, Hudson Guild is also offering assistance to the rest of the borough.
“New York Connects is really a one-stop shop,” said Dr. Nikki Stewart, Hudson Guild’s deputy executive director. “It’s like calling 311 to ask for information, but it’s a more glorified 311. You call 311, you get a number, an address, hours of operation; you call New York Connects and you’re really being connected from point A to point B, with more of a case management, maybe even a life case management, case assistance type of thing.
“For example: someone calls and says, ‘I need help with my mother who’s 90 years old, she needs assistance with Access-A-Ride. Can you help us?’ It’s more than giving a number. It’s talking about what that caregiver is doing for their mother, any resources they need other than Access-A-Ride, any resources for the caller themselves. So again, it’s more glorified: connecting that person from A to B.”
Though it’s part of the Department for the Aging, NY Connects services are not only for the city’s elders. Anyone caring for an older relative or for a young or older person who needs care can call to get help with finding services. Family caregivers and even professionals have called in for help with things like figuring out how to apply for benefits and entitlements; finding housing; accessing nutritious food; or signing up someone who’s isolated for regular home visits.
“We don’t just give a number,” Quanisha Bennett, Hudson Guild’s NY Connects program director said. “We try to make sure that we’ve covered all of the aspects that they’re coming for. We try to connect them to the services that are provided for in their community. But if we’re unable to provide those services for them, we try to connect them to the community that they are from, because there are hubs throughout the borough. So again, it’s not just answer[ing] the phone call, [and] just kind of giv[ing] a number. We want to make sure that we’re touching all bases.”
Hudson Guild is the Manhattan-based agency for anyone looking for social service assistance: their program can be reached at 212-966 9852. The other social service agencies available for city residents are the Neighborhood SHOPP, which covers The Bronx, which is at 347-862-5200; PSS, which is in Brooklyn, can be reached at 718-671-6200; in Queens, the phone number for Selfhelp Community Services, Inc. is 718-559-4400; and in Staten Island, there is the Community Agency for Senior Citizens at telephone number 718-489-3954.
At the Hudson Guild, they say they are expecting to receive 5,000 calls from borough residents this year. Their office is already receiving some 400 calls a month. “We are looking for more ways to spread the word so that more people know about NY Connects,” said Jacki Kelly, Hudson Guild’s executive director for development and external relations. “So they know that this is an opportunity that they can access.”
Bennett said the stress of caregiving takes a toll on many New Yorkers. “We have tons of people reaching out for that very reason,” she said. “Because it’s becoming a lot, because it’s feeling like an overload that they’re not able to manage anymore. They’re reaching out and they’re getting connected to the services within their community, to add that extra support. Sometimes people just need to know that there’s things out there, right? And what advocacy looks like for themselves. And to be given the tools so that they can actually take it back and really bring it into their community, into their home, and kind of do it for themselves.”