BERNARDSTON — Thanks to two $8,000 Service Incentive Grant (SIG) Field Demonstration awards from the Massachusetts Council of Aging, the Bernardston Senior Center is able to provide respite for home caregivers, launch a new digital marketing campaign and expand the center’s presence in the community.

The Massachusetts Councils on Aging and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs awarded 22 SIG Field Demonstration grants to councils on aging across the state. Half of the grants are for caregiver respite and the others are for marketing and outreach. The Bernardston Senior Center managed to obtain a grant from each category despite competing with 42 other senior centers for funding.

Massachusetts Councils on Aging Executive Director Elizabeth Connell said the SIG Field Demonstration grants allocate funding to address problems identified by local councils of aging. The fund has prioritized various issues over the past 40 years.

The SIG Field Demonstration grant for marketing and outreach will finance three different outreach programs at the Bernardston Senior Center. One focuses on online advertisements to expand the center’s digital footprint. The second program is a weekend conference with meals, music and speakers. The third project expands on LGBTQ and Latinx programs already offered at the center.

The Bernardston Senior Center partnered with NNEDigital to develop a digital marketing campaign. Ads will direct consumers to the Senior Center’s website and lunch signups. According to the Bernardston Senior Center’s grant application, this style of advertising uses search and browser history, location and demographic data to target local elders and their families.

Bernardston Senior Center Director Jennifer Reynolds said the digital campaign is expected to generate 100,000 views a month for six months.

“If there’s any kind of big event that surrounds elders or somebody I want to target, I can put up a geofence around the event. Anybody walking through with a smartphone, I can target with our ads,” Reynolds said. “This is a really new idea for senior centers.”

The grant money also funds outreach outside the virtual sphere. The Senior Center will host a weekend conference with speakers on elder law, senior care options, transportation, mindfulness, volunteering, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and LGBTQ. The event, which will likely happen in May, will provide lunch and dinner, too. The conference’s purpose is to familiarize residents with the Senior Center and its programs.

The final piece of the grant expands on LGBTQ and Latinx programs. The Bernardston Senior Center formed an LGBTQ group offering peer-to-peer support and a safe space to share coming-out stories. The group elaborates on events hosted by LifePath’s Rainbow Elders, the only other elderly LGBTQ group in Franklin County. Reynolds plans to host Pride parties, field trips and drag bingo as the community grows.

The Senior Center will also turn the Spanish language group, which started in July 2022, into a Latinx group by adding food, music and cultural elements to meetings.

The second grant, for caregiver respite, that was awarded to the Senior Center funded 30 hours of home care services from O’Connell Care at Home to six families with caregivers. Reynolds said the grant addresses caregiver burnout and a shortage of supplementary nurses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been a very challenging time of year because of the lack of workers,” Reynolds explained. “The private home care rates are so high that it’s unobtainable for a lot of these people. So it’s a really great thing for them to be able to utilize this.”

According to the Senior Center’s grant application, many of the center’s users qualify for Veteran Affairs and Aging Services Access Points home care, but deficient staff prevents public services from meeting these seniors’ needs. Reynolds noted the positive impact the supplemental care can have on the morale and health of elders.

“Just having that socialization, to have somebody to talk to every day instead of every other day,” Reynolds said. “And a lot of caregivers are experiencing burnout. You know, through COVID stuff was cut back, they have less staffing. So for a caregiver to get out of the house and be able to go do something for themselves and get a little breather just has a huge impact.”

All the projects funded by the two grants must end by June 2023. Then Reynolds and the Senior Center staff must report on the impact of the programs.

“I think it’s important that the councils on aging are really forward-thinking with applying to these grants. … When all is said and done we ask [senior centers] to share their outcomes and provide a final report, and we share the results with councils on aging across the state,” Connell said. “It’s really great that councils on aging in this state support each other. Not every state has that.”

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