McGregor Foundation Continues Supporting Economic Literacy for Low-Income Seniors

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The McGregor Foundation, in its semi-annual grantmaking cycle, has awarded $388,095 to 17 local service-providers aiding Northeast Ohio's most vulnerable seniors.

Among the grantees is the City of Cleveland Department of Aging, which received $45,000 from the McGregor Foundation and $45,000 from the Cleveland Foundation for the second consecutive year to provide financial counseling to 500 low-income seniors.

The Cleveland Economic Security Program is part of a six-city demonstration initiative to heighten economic awareness among low-income seniors.  The National Council on Aging, which is providing matching grants, sponsors the Program.  

"Low-income seniors have few financial resources available to meet their needs," says McGregor Foundation President Rob Hilton. "This special Program helps to fund services  -- from foreclosure intervention to financial and legal counseling -- that help seniors to make the most of and even add to what they own."

Another special grant of $30,000 went to the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland for its Pro Bono Elder Law Project, which provides legal services to low-income seniors.

McGregor made its remaining distributions in three categories, Affordable Senior Housing, Quality of Life, and Workforce Education.

Affordable Senior Housing: $50,000 to the Cleveland Housing Network for renovations to Rainbow Place; East End Neighborhood House, $30,000, transportation services; Senior Citizens Resources, Inc., $27,500, transportation services; Harvard Community Services Center, $25,000, senior services; University Settlement, Inc., $20,000, wellness programs; West Side Community House, $15,000, wellness programs, and Shaker Heights-Beachwood Meals on Wheels, $5,550, operating support.

Quality of Life: Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center, $30,000, Audiology Patient Assistance Program; Cleveland TOPS Swingband, $25,000, senior outreach programming; Cuyahoga County Public Library, $25,000, providing books by mail; Western Reserve Historical Society, $18,000, outreach programming, and Boy Scouts of America Greater Cleveland Council, $5,000, helping needy seniors with free yard maintenance.

Workforce Development: Grantmakers In Aging, $25,000, program support; Towards Employment, $10,000, job retention for longterm care workers, and the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, $2,095.

McGregor -- the only foundation in Ohio devoted exclusively to senior care -- has distributed more than $8 million to 300 organizations since its establishment in 2002. The Foundation is part of the A.M. McGregor Group, the oldest not-for-profit, non-sectarian provider of aging services in Northeast Ohio.  

Last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Ohio Department of Aging chose The McGregor Group, to sponsor the local Program for the All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).  

The Program, which enables low-income seniors to age at home rather than in costlier residential care facilities, serves participants through Centers for Senior Independence at the Margaret Wagner House in Cleveland Heights and the MetroHealth Senior Health & Wellness Center on Cleveland's West Side.

The McGregor Group also operates The Gardens, a nursing facility for 149 residents in private-rooms on a 32-acre campus in East Cleveland. Adjacent to the Gardens is the A.M. McGregor Home, which includes 65 affordable independent and assisted living apartments.

In addition, McGregor operates McGregor at Overlook, a 25-room satellite nursing home atop Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights.  

The McGregor Group traces its roots to 1877 with early support from the founding families of the Standard Oil Company.

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SOURCE The McGregor Foundation