Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center Awarded The CTA Foundation’s Shalam Award for Combating Social Isolation

In 2021, The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Foundation awarded its inaugural John and Jane Shalam Award to Combat Social Isolation to Selfhelp.

NEW YORK, NY , USA, November 8, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In 2021, The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Foundation awarded its inaugural John and Jane Shalam Award to Combat Social Isolation to Selfhelp Community Services. Through this award, Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center is recognized for combating social isolation among low-income and homebound older adults.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center (VSC) has tripled its enrollment, enabling more homebound older adults to stay engaged and connected with their communities. Prior to the pandemic, Deborah Otts had never used a computer and became homebound after surgery. She was referred to the VSC by her social worker and became an active member – joining classes on computer skills, current events, music, and more. She found a community online, a place where friends check in on each other and care about each other.

As documented by the CDC, NIH, and The Lancet, social isolation has dire health consequences for older adults. Now more than ever, older adults need virtual communities to remain mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy. Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center (VSC) has proven that homebound doesn’t have to equal socially isolated. Every day, hundreds of older adults log on to the VSC’s engaging online community to join interactive classes, discussion groups, and cultural experiences, all from the comfort of home. Launched in 2010, in its first ten years, the VSC engaged more than 2000 participants, offering 28,000 live online classes totaling more than 344,000 hours. To meet the growing need of organizations serving their clients virtually, the Virtual Senior Center is now available to community-based organizations, community centers, nursing homes, assisted living, and home care providers as a tool to build a virtual community.

Selfhelp Community Services is proud to accept the John and Jane Shalam Award to Combat Social Isolation to recognize the impact of the Virtual Senior Center on the lives of thousands of homebound older adults.


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About Selfhelp

Selfhelp Community Services is a non-profit serving 20,000 older and vulnerable adults each year through home health care, affordable housing, and skilled social services, while remaining the largest provider of services to Holocaust survivors in North America. The organization offers a complete network of home care and community-based services with the overarching goal of helping seniors live with dignity and independence and avoid institutionalization. www.selfhelp.net

Katie Foley
Selfhelp Community Services
+1 2129717605
kfoley@selfhelp.net
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