The Elder Economic Security Initiative

PathWaysPA has partnered with state and national organizations, including CARIE, the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and researchers from the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston to develop the Elder Economic Security Initiative™ (EESI). The EESI offers a realistic, geographically based measure of the income that older Americans need to age with dignity.

According to the EESI, the average Social Security payment in Pennsylvania is not nearly enough to support an elder with dignity in their own home. Still, one out of four elders relies on Social Security as their only income.

Pennsylvania will be the third state to release this information, following Massachusetts and California.

 

PathWaysPA Launches Transitional Living Program

PathWaysPA has received a federal grant from the Administration on Children, Youth & Families. The grant, to be disbursed to PathWaysPA over the next five years, will be used to launch the Transitional Living Program (TLP).

“Through the program, we’ll be able to provide furnished apartments to homeless young women while they continue their education, maintain a job, or receive skills training,” said Joan Haldeman, Vice President of Residential Services for PathWaysPA. “TLP will be for young women, aged 16-21, who are not involved with the child welfare system or juvenile justice.”

PathWaysPA, formerly the Women’s Association for Women’s Alternatives, began in 1978 as one of Pennsylvania ’s first residential programs to keep low-income, vulnerable women together with their children. Today it has grown to become one of the Greater Philadelphia region’s foremost providers of residential and community-based services, helping nearly 5,000 clients a year.

The Transitional Living Program will be able to provide for up to 20 young women over an 18-month period. It will be under the direction of Patty Jones, who oversees PathWaysPA’s Supervised Independent Living program.  For more information on TLP, please call 215-387-1470.