Delaware County Community Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity launched in 2002 to promote philanthropy by encouraging donors who want to help the county through grantmaking and preserving local capital for the community. Its mission is to assist donors to fulfill their charitable objectives through lasting legacies and to provide support to meet local needs and improve the quality of life for residents of Delaware County. Using income from invested assets, the foundation supports a broad range of charitable activities that address emerging and changing community needs in such fields as education, arts and culture, health, social services, community development, environment and civic engagement. Members of the foundation’s Board of Directors and Board of Advisors are business, civic and community leaders who are actively engaged in the county. The staff includes a full-time Executive Director and a Special Projects Director.

Community Makeup

Located in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, Delaware County has 49 municipalities and covers 185 square miles. One in every four of the county’s 545,000 residents is over the age of 50, making it the oldest population by percentage in the Commonwealth. To help service the needs of older adults, the County Office of Services for the Aging (COSA) was founded in 1975. In 2006, the foundation, in cooperation with COSA, launched Phase One of the Civic Engagement Initiative to assess the level of civic engagement among the county’s residents 50+. For purposes of the study, civic engagement includes volunteerism, lifelong learning and employment.

A valuable residual benefit of the Civic Engagement Initiative has been engaging so many people from various sectors of the community in a common mission, and in the process creating a coalition that might not have otherwise existed because of issues that can divide rather than unify.

— Margaret A. Hendricks, Executive Director

For more information

Delaware County Community Foundation
Margaret A. Hendricks, Executive Director

610-565-8353

Life Transition Network of Delaware County

Phase One of the Delaware County Community Foundation (DCCF) Civic Engagement Initiative disclosed that the overriding issue among residents 50+ is the need for easy, multimedia access to complete, accurate, timely information about volunteerism, lifelong learning and employment opportunities. To address the need, a Phase Two Action Committee has been established to ensure optimal inclusion among the various constituencies (for-profit, nonprofit and government, ethnic and faith-based) in the county. Participating partners include: County Office of Services for the Aging (COSA), Coming of Age, AARP PA, RSVP, Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, Main Line Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Delaware County Community College and Crozer-Keystone Health System.

The overriding goal of Phase Two has been to establish DCCF and its principal partner, the County Office of Services for the Aging (COSA), as the leading aggregator/integrator/disseminator of information concerning services and service providers throughout Delaware County that support residents 50+ in the transition to the next chapter of their lives, and do it in innovative ways using technology and available social networking resources. The result will be a more active, productive and engaged segment of the county's population.

The nucleus of the program is a master database managed by an ASP interface that will enable DCCF to populate an Internet portal licensed from Coming of Age. The website, www.delco.comingofage.org, as well as age-targeted television and radio programs, and newspaper columns, are part of the Life Transition Network of Delaware County. Also envisioned are Life Transition Centers located in senior centers, public libraries, and adult educational venues such as colleges, universities and high schools.

For the first time, residents 50+ and their families will have convenient, multimedia access to timely, complete, accurate information they can use to make choices, solve problems, improve their quality of life and contribute to the community. Existing resources for older adults in the county will produce a greater ROI because of increased use. Aditionally, the level of volunteerism in Delaware County, especially among Boomers, will increase. By placing more volunteers in schools, health care facilities, libraries and other forms of community service, the economic value of volunteerism among older adults in the county is expected to increase significantly from the current estimate of $36 million.

Goals

Demonstrate the role the Delaware County Community Foundation can play in creating an alliance of nonprofit, government and corporate organizations to launch a unique community communication initiative for older adults.
Establish the Life Transition Network as the authoritative resource for useful information about volunteerism, lifelong learning and employment opportunities for Delaware County residents 50+.
Engage employers, nonprofits and educational institutions to use the Life Transition Network to reach the county’s estimated 137,000 residents 50+.
Secure financial support for full development and ongoing operating expenses through grants, corporate sponsorship and government funding.

Outcomes

Success will be measured against these metrics:

The number of unique visitors and the length of time spent on the website measured over a reasonable period
The incremental increase in the number of residents interested in volunteerism as reflected in the inquiries recorded by RSVP, for example, and contacts made with nonprofits, especially by Boomers
Feedback from partners, such as reports from the Delaware County Chamber and the Main Line Chamber that links to their respective job boards are generating an increase in employment opportunities for older adults
Periodic surveys of older adults through COSA and other intermediaries to determine the level of awareness of the Life Transition Network and its perceived value among those whom it is primarily intended to serve
The ability of the Life Transition Network to attract corporate and additional grant funding based on its success in attaining its goal of empowering and mobilizing residents 50+ and their families by providing them with convenient, multimedia access to needed EARN (employment), LEARN (lifelong learning) and SERVE (volunteerism) information.

Benefits to participating entities

Nonprofit service providers in the county benefit by coming together in a common cause, sharing resources and leveraging the assets each has to offer the community. Additionally, each benefits from the public relations value of affiliation with the program which will be a model of efficient collaboration and resource sharing.

For-profit organizations have the opportunity to support a comprehensive program that provides valuable services to constituencies in which they have a business interest. Participation is a natural extension of their community relations initiatives and is a cost-effective way to demonstrate their concern for the quality of life of a large segment of the county’s population