St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care

Mission

St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care provides Franciscan-inspired, intergenerational, community-based health and educational services for children, adults, frail elders and people with disabilities, and serves as a resource for their caregivers.

Services Provided

Child Care Program

Like a traditional child day care, St. Ann Center keeps children safe, happy and excited about learning. But what’s extraordinary is the regular interaction with adults in the day service program. As they get to know one another, special friendships form. And that’s when the fun really starts.

St. Ann Center cares for both children and adults within the same building, facilitating closeness that leads to understanding and respect for all ages.

Children in intergenerational programs learn to socialize and get along with different types of people by the time they reach school age. Meanwhile, children bring a sparkle to the eyes of many adults who don’t typically have youngsters in their lives. The sights and sounds of children have a way of getting older adults engaged and moving.

Buddy Program

The Buddy Program is an educational mentoring project aimed at strengthening intergenerational relations and increasing respect for diversity by connecting youth with older adults and people with disabilities. The activities are designed to reinforce compassion and create a caring, peaceful community.

Adult Program

Through adult day services, dementia care and temporary overnight respite care, St. Ann Center strives to give older adults and people with disabilities a chance to remain independent longer. They receive needed compassionate, cost-effective care such as: whirlpool bathing, nutritious meals and activities to keep them moving. Then they return home at the end of the day.

Besides providing adults with the care, supervision and social interaction they need, this program gives caregivers the time they need to work or meet other obligations.

Community Offerings

St. Ann Center is dedicated to the well-being of the entire community. Comprehensive “a la carte” programs offer extra care while spending for those spending their day at the center or others who just need one particular service. These include the whirlpool baths, swimming and exercise in a wheelchair-accessible warm-water pool, occupational/physical therapy, hair/nail care salon, a special needs dental clinic, a medical clinic, safe walking trails and an outdoor band shell, and more. Because St. Ann Center’s northside campus is located in one of the most challenged zip codes in the state, staff also work to help empower neighbors to reach economic independence, running a monthly group for small business and regular workshops for entrepreneurs, and providing a meeting place and event space for partnering organizations.

How Many People Reached

Adult day care, childcare, overnight respite care, bathing services, occupational/physical therapy, massage therapy, warm-water therapy, children’s swimming lessons, special needs dental clinic, medical clinic, hair/nail care salon and adult whirlpool baths -- reached more than 1,000 people in 2019.

How Donations Are Used

Many donations help cover the difference between what the state reimburses St. Ann Center for an adult’s care and the cost of providing high-quality care. Many adult clients live below the poverty line and would not be able to afford health and wellness services without help from the center’s donors. Other donations go to enhance the center’s offerings; last year, a wheelchair-accessible bus was donated to get more adult day service clients out in the community on field trips to museums, theaters, festivals and parks.

Project Spotlight

St. Ann Center is a nonprofit organization and its Cash Raffle is held once in April and once in October.

Awards or Certifications Received

St. Ann Center has received more than 50 awards in the last 30 years from local, regional, state, national and global organizations. Most recently, founder and President Sr. Edna Lonergan was named this year to the Inspiration Honor Roll as part of the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards Celebration, which celebrates acts of kindness and service that demonstrate the light individuals bring to their communities around the world.

Interesting Facts

Research reports by Generations United (a national organization advocating for the well-being of children, youth, and older adults through intergenerational programming) show older adults participating in intergenerational shared sites, like St. Ann Center, experience:

• improved physical and mental health
• enhanced socialization and improved sense of self-worth
• increased personal independence
• less agitation in those with dementia
• improved attitudes about other generations
• delayed entrance into nursing homes