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Providing Respite for Family Caregivers

Family caregivers are essential to many older adults living in the community who need extra support and compassion. The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, Health Foundation for Western and Central New York, and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation are partnering to recognize and learn how to provide this same support and compassion back to family caregivers throughout western New York and Washtenaw County, Michigan. Exhale – The Family Caregiver Initiative, originally called the Communities Care Family Caregivers Respite Pilot Program, is managed by The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) with support from Teresa Lawrence (International Deliverables).

Get Involved

Exhale is expanding to Erie, Genesee, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming counties in Western New York and to Washtenaw County, Michigan. Nonprofit organizations as well as businesses and employers of caregivers that are based in these counties are eligible to participate in Exhale. The program includes a series of five training and capacity building workshops, a grant funding opportunity, and support for effective implementation of pilot initiatives. The workshop series for program participants begins January 5, 2022.

Attend a virtual information session on November 30, 2021 (click here to register) or December 6, 2021 (click here to register) to find out more about how your organization or company can get involved with this exciting opportunity.

Programs and Resources

Program Overview

Exhale, the Family Caregiver Initiative, funds innovative collaborative projects that are reimagining and increasing respite opportunities for family caregivers of older adults. Respite, a period of rest or relief, can play a key role in reinforcing caregiver well-being and effectiveness, leading to better health, social-emotional outcomes, and lower costs of care for family caregivers and older adults they care for. Simply knowing respite services are available can lower caregiver stress by 70%. Caregivers need support to find time to rest, clear their minds, and take a breath. That’s why we’re here to help.

To date, Exhale has helped teams of organizations learn and apply creative problem-solving techniques and work together to increase respite opportunities for family caregivers of older adults. Through this program, three successful pilot projects were created: Caregiver Tech Solutions, Intergenerational Enrichment and Educational Respite Program, and Musical Memories Café.

Exhale has three components:

Training and capacity building in creative problem solving and project management
Grant funding of pilot projects or other innovative initiatives that support respite for family caregivers
Supporting effective implementation, sustainability, and expansion of pilots through a learning community for grantee partners

EXHALE TIMELINE >>

LEARN MORE ABOUT PHASE 1 PILOT INITIATIVES >>

Program funders

OTHER PARTNERS

The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI)
Teresa Lawrence of International Deliverables, LLC
New York Academy of Medicine
ARCHANGELS
Centene Corporation
Fidelis Care New York

Training Workshop Resources

The following resources were used during the creative problem solving and project management training that was provided to all program participants during Exhale’s first training workshop series (October 2019 through May 2020). This training was provided by project partner Teresa Lawrence, PhD of International Deliverables in collaboration with TPI.

2019-2023 Cohort Project Resources and Learning Community

The following resources include information about Exhale’s first three pilot programs, program activities, timeline, and learning community activities during the initial grants phase of the program. Click here to learn more about Exhale’s first three respite pilots.

Key Documents

Project in the News

Learning Community Sessions

October 8, 2020

February 1, 2021

June 8, 2021

October 4, 2021

Respite and Caregiving Resources

*The Caregiver Intensity Index (CII) is a web-based caregiver “quiz” designed to engage caregivers, assess the intensity of and provide a “score” in validation of their experience, and connect them to the resources of our sponsoring partners and supplemented by ARCHANGELS’ resources. Through data and stories, the CII creates the crosswalk from an individual caregiver’s experience to population insights that support development of products, tactics, approaches, and solutions that reflect the complex caregiver reality.

“Family caregivers play an essential role in the lives of older adults in our communities and deserve support and recognition for their invaluable work. We are proud to partner on this initiative with the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation with the goal of enabling organizations to team together and develop creative respite programs that provide a new level of support for our communities’ caregivers.”

Ken Genewick, Senior Program Officer for Caregiving, Health Foundation for Western and Central New York