30 Jan ROSS Program: Our Results in 2018
Vail Place is proud to wrap up another successful year of the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) program.
In 2018 our ROSS service coordinators – Katy Molinare at Hamilton House in St. Louis Park and Kayle Dietrich at Dow Towers in Hopkins – served 71 residents during the 196 days the ROSS office was open. The office kept busy with an average of 11 visits per day and over 2,000 visits for the year. Many residents scheduled appointments and even more took advantage of open office hours in the Community Room.
Our service coordinators were able to refer residents to community resources at 25 different agencies as well as work with them directly to address a wide range of needs, such as coordinating benefit and housing support, providing assistance with family issues, answering legal questions, offering financial literacy education and many more.
In addition to office visits, the ROSS program organized 22 community presentations covering various health and wellness topics. Speakers gave audiences strategies for emotional wellbeing with presentations such as Mind Over Mood, Emotional Grit and Making a Healthy Change, just to name a few. Physical health was also emphasized, with topics like nutrition IQ, resources for vision loss, partnering with your doctor and a flu shot clinic.
Service coordinators were able to further extend their health education reach to many residents through wellness initiatives, including weekly mindfulness and walking groups and a monthly art hour. This focus on wellbeing and self-improvement applied to services offered on an individual basis as well. Throughout the year, residents received support with needs ranging from goal setting and job searching to problem-solving and accountability.
The ROSS program also offered several community engagement events, including an ice cream social, Wii games in the Community Room, cookie decorating, pie bingo and van trips to the zoo, science museum and nature center.
At its core, the ROSS program aims to help empower adults and increase self-sufficiency. Looking back over the year’s accomplishments, we are excited about how many people we were able to help empower to make meaningful changes in their lives. We look forward to making an even greater impact in 2019!