CVAAA plans satellite network for services

The Central Virginia Area Agency on Aging is moving forward with a plan to develop a local satellite network in each locality it serves.

The focus will be on developing the change “one locality at a time,” Dan Farris, agency executive director, said at Monday’s board meeting.

For more than a year the board studied options that could lead to a greater ability to serve the needs of the elderly, and reached a consensus on the satellite concept.

Farris described a setting in which agency dining centers would become a kind of focal point for each community. CVAAA would become less a Lynchburg-based agency trying to meet needs in the counties, and more of a local entity within the counties collaborating with senior programs, civic groups, churches and agencies.

Right now, Bedford County has the most active involvement with the agency. The county has three CVAAA dining centers and the popular Bedford Ride program in which volunteers use CVAAA vehicles or their own cars to provide essential transportation to Bedford residents.

The satellite talks, though, come at a time when funding is a critical issue for the agency, which has seen limited financial growth because it depends almost exclusively on allocations.

CVAAA, which serves the cities of Lynchburg and Bedford and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell, is mostly funded by federal Older Americans Act dollars funneled through the Virginia Department for the Aging.

That money is allocated according to a formula that includes the population of elderly residing in a jurisdiction.

The agency relies mostly on local government allocations to provide the match money, which is required by some state or federal programs and for new program development.

But those dollars are not always predictable.

Sometimes they go up, as with Appomattox County this year. But, Bedford City just cut its $9,000 allocation to about $5,000. Bedford City also notified CVAAA that the allotment to Bedford Ride would also decrease. The state has cut about $5,000 from the CVAAA’s roughly $2.1 million budget for this year.

“Any cut hurts,” Farris said.

Lynne Burnham, of the CVAAA advisory council asked why, when a locality reduces its contribution, that adding new clients from that locality couldn’t be put on hold.

“We have to provide services to our population base,” Farris said.

That base is growing.

Burnham, of Campbell County, said the number of baby boomers and older age groups are soon going to be a huge number to serve.

“No one realizes it more than the city of Bedford,” which has a higher than average median age, said board member Tom Messier.

In other business, the board:

- Moved its next meeting forward to July 21 to review and comment on the Area Plan for Aging Services, which must be submitted to the state by July 25. Copies of the plan will be on view at the CVAAA office on Forest Hills Circle in Lynchburg in about two weeks. Public comment can be made at the board meeting.

- Learned that the United Way of Central Virginia had increased by three percent its allocation to CVAAA.

- Learned from Farris that two CVAAA programs recently were recognized for excellence. The agency’s insurance counseling program (VICAP) led by David Edwards was recognized by the Virginia Department for the Aging. Accolades for the weatherization program led by Melissa Commins were from the Department of Housing and Community Development.