The Helping Homebound Heroes grant program is made possible through Meals on Wheels America’s ongoing partnership with The Home Depot Foundation and has been a longtime flagship initiative of our in-home safety strategy. The purpose of the program is to honor those who have served their country while providing much-needed home modifications and/or repairs to support the safety of Meals on Wheels veteran clients. Since our partnership began in 2015, the Helping Homebound Heroes grant program has provided services to over 1,900 veterans across the country. 

In 2020, eight local Meals on Wheels programs received Helping Homebound Heroes grants to implement critical home repairs and modifications. Meals on Wheels America subsequently commissioned this qualitative study to:

1. Better articulate perceived impacts on older adults’ health and well-being associated with home repairs and home modifications conducted by Meals on Wheels programs that have received Helping Homebound Heroes grants, and
   
   
2. Identify recommendations for strengthening home modification/repair programs nationally.

The outcomes and recommendations shared in this report are based on findings from an analysis of existing data as well as interviews with home modification and/or repair recipients and can influence and support the larger field of home modifications and repairs.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

As Meals on Wheels programs are acutely aware, improving health largely falls outside of healthcare facilities. Community Aging in Place—Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) is an evidence-based falls prevention strategy developed at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing that enables low-income seniors to safely age in place. Addressing both function and cost, the approach teams a nurse, an occupational therapist and a handyman to address both the home environment and uses the strengths of the older adults themselves to improve safety and independence.

Building off our successful report, Older Adults and In-Home Safety, Meals on Wheels America teamed up with The Home Depot Foundation once again to help senior nutrition programs evaluate and implement CAPABLE to better support clients. CAPABLE and Meals on Wheels: A Landscape Analysis equips senior nutrition programs with the information needed to evaluate this cost-effective strategy and shares the examples of partners, funders and organizations engaged in scaling this promising approach.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT    WATCH THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR

Local Meals on Wheels programs play a critical role in observing and addressing safety hazards in the home during regular meal deliveries, as staff and volunteers have the opportunity to observe clients’ home environments firsthand. In an ongoing effort to support local programs in their work to ensure their senior clients remain healthy and safe, Meals on Wheels America conducted an assessment of the most prevalent home safety hazards, as well as a review of what is being done to make homes more livable to keep seniors safer and prevent falls. The Older Adults and In-Home Safety report conveys the insights and findings of that assessment. The report:

• Explores the primary safety challenges seniors face in their own homes;
• Synthesizes interviews and publicly available research and information about solutions and interventions to improve in-home safety;
• Examines groups and organizations that are involved in improving home safety and livability for seniors; and
• Looks ahead at trends within the in-home safety space to consider what can be done to fill existing knowledge and implementation gaps in the future.

Download the Executive Summary        Download the Full Report
Read the Press Statement        View Webinar Recording

This report is intended to be disseminated freely. In reproducing any excerpts of this report, please provide a credit, such as: “Older Adults and In-Home Safety was produced by Meals on Wheels America and made possible by a grant from The Home Depot Foundation. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of Meals on Wheels America.”