AgeOptions (Oak Park, IL) will receive a grant totaling $515,357 for Caring Together, Living Better. Using an asset based approach the program will work directly with churches and other grassroots organizations that serve poor older adults living in Chicago’s South Suburbs. Caregivers will receive help with respite care, transportation, and access to benefits such as Food Stamps. www.ageoptions.org

Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) will receive a grant of $750,000 for the Asian and Pacific Islander Dementia Care Network. Using linguistically and culturally fluent community care managers, this program will provide services to caregivers directly through four Asian cultural and linguistic organizations to provide respite care and legal and financial counseling related to caregiving. www.alz.org

The Asian Community Center (Sacramento Valley, CA) will receive a grant totaling $706,659 for the Sacramento Asian Pacific Islander Dementia Care Network. The project will provide direct assistance to caregivers from Sacramento’s very diverse Asian communities including Thai, Filipino, Hmong, Korean, Samoan, Tongan, and Native Hawaiian with services such as caregiver education, drop-in respite care, and in-home nursing services. The project will also educate mainstream service providers on how to work with a linguistically and culturally diverse population. www.accsv.org

Eastern Area Agency on Aging (Bangor, ME) will receive a grant of $650,000 to support the Rural Community Based Caregiver Network and Support System. The program will offer in-home assessment and volunteer support services, caregiver counseling at the point of hospital discharge, and training for caregivers living in this very rural area of Northern New England. www.eaaa.org

Isabella Geriatric Center, Upper Manhattan (New York City, NY) will receive a grant of $714,900 to support the Caregiver Ombudsman Outreach Project. The project will permit specialists to work with family and informal caregivers by offering respite care, caregiver retreats, and training sessions. www.isabella.org

Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Sarasota-Manatee (Sarasota, FL) will receive a grant of $708,229 for its Caregivers Accessing Resources and Essential Services (CARES) project.  CARES introduces a widely used approach to planning and delivering services to children, known as Wraparound Services, to older adult caregivers. Through this project, caregivers will receive respite care and homemaker services from a wide variety of partners, agencies, and  local volunteers. www.jfcs-cares.org

Jewish Healthcare Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA) will receive a $300,000 grant for Caregiver Champions, a unique grassroots program to support and empower the caregivers of frail, older adults by helping them to better care for themselves, reduce stress and gain access to important caregiving information, tools and resources. The initiative is open to people of all faiths.

There are two ways to get involved. The first way to get involved is by becoming a Caregiver Champion. The Foundation is currently recruiting experienced family and informal caregivers to become a resource for information and support within their own communities. The second way to get involved is by attending Learning Circles, six, free, two-hour sessions where topic experts provide informal learning in a casual setting. Learning Circles are facilitated by trained Caregiver Champion. Caregivers will learn about several topics including recognizing burnout, asking for help, advocating for loved ones and navigating the human services system. www.caregiverchampions.org |  www.jhf.org

Monadnock Collaborative (Keene, NH) will receive a grant of $650,000 for its Transitions in Caring initiative. This program links caregiver support programs in four rural counties of Western New Hampshire and features intensive caregiver training and respite care for the caregiver and care-recipient. The program will also provide in-home volunteers to help with homemaking and chore services. www.nhcaregiverconnections.org

Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation (New Hyde Park, NY) will receive a grant of $300,000 to support Willing Hearts, Helpful Hands. The project will recruit, train, and deploy volunteer chore service and respite care workers in Eastern Queens (Hyde Park) and Western Long Island. The volunteers will be available to support family and informal caregivers in an emergency or recurring basis. www.parkerinstitute.org

REAL Services (South Bend IN) will receive a grant of $780,000 for the Caregiver Connection project, a community-based program featuring caregiver training, case management, and access to consumer directed care.  The key to this project is participation in its home repair and modification programs. The project will serve a community of older adults living in sub-standard housing.  www.realservices.org

SAGE Caring And Preparing (SAGECAP) (New York City, NY) will receive a grant of $660,000 for the Life Choices I Care/My Care program which recognizes that caregivers and care recipients in this community may rely solely on non-family acquaintances or friends to provide their care. The project will offer caregiver training supplemented by legal, financial, and personal care planning assistance for both the caregiver and care receiver. www.sageusa.org

Share the Care (Orlando, FL) will receive a grant of $309,000 for Caregiver Central, a web-based caregiving needs assessment, enabling the caregiver to assess the situation, with a family navigator if desired, and proceed with a specifically-designed cascade of options including information, training, personal support, direct service connection and continuing needs assessment. Caregiver Central will be open to all caregivers of older adults in low-income African American and Latino communities in Metropolitan Orlando. Highlighted by the concept of a Caregiver College, a welcoming information and support hub, homelike yet technologically advanced, with friendly onsite operations assistance as well as home and offsite connection capability. www.helpforcaregivers.org

Southern Caregiver Resource Center (San Diego, CA) will receive a grant of $540,000 for the Partners In Caring Collaboration. The program will provide services for caregivers in the South Bay area, the ethnically diverse communities south of San Diego along the Mexican border. Services provided include case management, caregiver classes, respite care, support groups, legal consultations, home modifications, counseling, and an intergenerational computer lab for often mono-lingual caregivers who have no current access to services. Each community in the area will have its own care-manager located in the community to coordinate these services and training opportunities. www.caregivercenter.org

Wellmed Charitable Foundation (San Antonio, TX) will receive a grant of $600,000 for the Alamo Caregiver Tele-Connection Collaboration, a mix of services and supports available by telephone, on the web, or in person for low-income older adults in the San Antonio area.  Modeled on Montreal’s successful Telehelp Program caregivers will receive bi-lingual and bi-cultural training in respite care, in-home assessment, and benefits screening for the care-receiver and the care-recipient.  www.wellmedcharitablefoundation.org