INDIAN SHORES – Town commissioners approved a $2,500 donation to Neighborly Care Network, a private nonprofit organization that provides services to needy senior citizens, during its Aug. 12 meeting.
In a letter to Mayor James Lawrence, Michelle Backlund, vice president of NCN, said her organization serves three Indian Shores residents and others who use the organization’s not-for-profit pharmacy.
“We need the support of the Town of Indian Shores to ensure continuation of the services to the elderly and homebound in your community,” she said. “The organization is asking the town for a $2,500 appropriation to be used as either local matching funds or a direct contribution to provide services to additional seniors.”
The Neighborly Care Network receives its primary source of funding through Title III of the Older Americans Act. Backlund said that for every $9 of federal money received NCN must raise $1 as a match.
The organization was chartered in 1966. A needs assessment of the elderly was taken in 1967 and services to Pinellas County seniors were initiated in 1968 through its meals on wheels and adult day care programs. A group dining program was started in 1973. Transportation services began in 1977.
Since 1980, the organization has provided additional home and community services under the state’s Community Care for The Elderly program.
“Neighborly is committed to the seniors we serve,” Backlund said. “Neighborly Care Network has demonstrated that we can meet the changing needs of our clients.”
The organization maintains 12 group dining sites; a 128-stop Meals On Wheels program; four adult day care centers; 22 vehicles providing daily transportation services; home health care to Medicare clients; and a nonprofit pharmacy. On January 1, 2004 NCN opened the first nonprofit pharmacy in Florida. The pharmacy provides medicines at cost reducing the need of choosing food over medicine.
Backlund said there has been a recent increase in the number of young people using the pharmacy.
“These people for the most part are employed but uninsured,” she said. “The Neighborly Pharmacy is no longer just for our senior population.”
