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State of Franklin Health Council outlines senior services growth, transit demand and job-placement program
Summary
Lisa Loftus, director of the State of Franklin Health Council, briefed the Swain County Board on senior-center meals, transit ridership growth and a Department of Labor–funded senior employment program, highlighting rising demand and funding structures.
Lisa Loftus, director of the State of Franklin Health Council, presented an overview of the nonprofit’s three programs in Swain County — the senior center, transit and the Senior Community Service Employment Program (CSEP) — and asked for continued county partnership as demand rises.
Loftus said the Swain Senior Center serves approximately 75 older adults daily, including about 50 home-delivered meal clients and about 25 congregate clients who attend the center for meals, exercise programs and social activities. She said the center’s nutrition funding comes from the Home and Community Care Block Grant routed through the state and the area agency on aging, Southwestern Commission, and that the county provides a roughly 10% match for nutrition funding.
On transit, Loftus said the system now serves all county residents in need of transportation and operates Monday through Friday roughly from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. She said transit employs six full-time drivers and one part-time driver, that operating funding includes state DOT grants with a county match, and that the DOT operating match runs about 50% (administrative match is about 15%). Loftus provided year-over-year usage statistics: medical trips increased by 47%, shopping trips by 53% and employment trips by 138% compared with the prior year.
Loftus also described the CSEP program, a Department of Labor–funded grant administered through the Center for Workforce Inclusion that places unemployed low-income residents age 55 and older in training positions with nonprofit and government partners. She noted CSEP participants may be veterans or people at risk of homelessness and said the program’s wage rules follow the state minimum wage cited in the presentation.
Loftus highlighted demographic context, saying roughly 27% of Swain County residents are age 60 or older, and asked the board for continued partnership as the nonprofit seeks ways to expand services in the face of rising demand, higher vehicle and fuel costs and limited revenue growth.
Provenance: The presentation began when Lisa Loftus introduced the State of Franklin Health Council and concluded after commissioners’ questions about veterans and program details.
