How Did Iona Start?

What is Iona's Mission?

Iona: A History

Since 1975, Iona Senior Services"has served as a respected and trusted provider of essential services for Washington DC elders, their families and the community. Iona fulfills its mission to support people as they experience the challenges and opportunities of aging through education, advocacy and the provision of community-based programs and services to help people age well and live well. We envision a community that celebrates, values, respects and protects the contributions and possibilities of every individual.

Iona’s core programs are built around the needs of those who are facing difficult times, transitions or health issues.Through the Consultation, Care Management and Counseling programs, compassionate and highly trained social workers provide intensive, one-on-one support to seniors and families, helping them navigate challenges associated with aging. In addition, Iona offers mental health counseling and support groups to help people deal with grief, loss, depression, chronic illness such as Parkinson’s, low vision or other disabilities, and major life transitions. Last fiscal year, Iona assisted over 500 seniors and their families through these programs.

Iona’s Adult Day Health Wellness and Arts Center offers engaging daily programming to those with cognitive or physical impairments, including art therapies, wellness programs and socialization in a medically supervised setting. Earlier this year, Iona’s Adult Day Health, Wellness and Arts Center was named a “Center for Excellence in Dementia Care” by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, the only day center on the east coast to receive such a distinction. In fiscal year 2009, Iona served 73 seniors through this program.

4,105 calls were logged into the Questions and Answers Helpline at Iona in the past year, and countless people accessed information through our website and the bi-annual Resource Guide, now in its 17^th edition.Community programming, targeted to people who are independent and looking to remain socially engaged and healthy, offers exercise programs and educational workshops, events through the The Gallery at Iona, volunteer opportunities at the Breckinridge Center and a mid-day exercise and lunch program at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church. Transportation to and from grocery stores, weekend meal and commodity food delivery helps those who are homebound remain at home for as long as possible.

Through Advocacy, Iona has fully supported and housed the work of the DC Coalition for Long Term Care as it has worked to help the city develop home and community-based services as alternatives to nursing home care for low-income residents with chronic care needs. In fiscal year 2009, Iona hired a part-time transportation advocate to research and report on the issue of transportation for seniors in the city, finding that pedestrian safety was the number one issue facing seniors as they access public transportation. Iona is now developing a community coalition to advocate for traffic calming measures, longer crosswalk times at busy intersections and benches on heavily traveled routes for seniors in our city.

Iona's Mission

Senior Services was established in 1975 to serve the needs of people in the community. To improve their ability to handle the increasing number of requests for guidance on medical care, public services and other social assistance, three local churches - St. Columba’s Episcopal, St. Ann’s Roman Catholic and Eldbrooke United Methodist - joined forces to create a center that would provide information to people in need. Most of the requests were coming from people over the age of 60. In recognition of the needs of this growing population of older residents, Iona’s board voted to focus on serving older adults, regardless of their ability to pay.

In 1980, Iona took a big leap forward and was awarded a grant to serve as the lead agency for the DC Office on Aging for Ward 3 and parts of Wards 1 and 2, a designation which continues to this day.As the demand for services continued to grow, Iona quickly outgrew its original offices. In April 1997, thanks to generous donations and successful fundraising efforts, Iona moved to its current location at 4125 Albemarle St., in Northwest Washington, DC. The Isabella Breckinridge Center allows Iona to offer additional services, including expanded adult day health wellness and arts care, workshops and caregiver education classes, support groups, fitness classes, mental health counseling and much more.