LakewoodAlive Receives Grant Funding From McGregor Foundation

LakewoodAlive was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the McGregor Foundation. The grant will support the Community Engagement Specialist role, which focuses on helping Lakewood's low-income senior residents.

Nearly 75% of Lakewood’s housing clients are seniors, many living on little more than social security. Additionally, 80% of our homes are 90 years or older, and few have first floor bedrooms and bathrooms. These factors make home safety paramount.

The personalized support this grant will fund helps connect these low-moderate income seniors to critical services and resources including aging in place assessments, installation of basic safety equipment, and installation of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Aging in Place assessments are conducted in seniors’ living spaces to determine how they navigate their homes, and if any improvements can be made to make moving around those homes easier and safer.

The funding also helps the program connect these residents to resources from partner organizations including from the City of Lakewood Division of Community Development. These resources can fund major system replacements - as necessary - including furnaces and hot water tanks while funding repairs to plumbing and electrical systems among other things. Lastly, the grant will support the work of helping residents address bed bug infestations that occur which further reduce a residents’ quality of life.

“We are thrilled to receive support from the McGregor Foundation to help our local senior residents. Our Community Engagement Specialist works tirelessly to build relationships with our clients and to guide them through the complexities of major home repairs from applying for City programs to getting quotes for the work to ensuring the repairs are made,” said LakewoodAlive Executive Director, Ian Andrews.