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In 1995 in Fort Worth, Texas, Debi Laurents, RN and Community Care Manager of Harris Methodist Health System and a trained LAH/BNP Community Coach, was working with elderly African American residents in the Near Southeast and Morningside (NSEAM) neighborhoods. Finding that they needed social services more than traditional health care, she met with members from the community and received overwhelming support to help establish a volunteer-run Living at Home/Block
Nurse Program. Information about the Program spread by word-of-mouth and in May 1996 the NSEAM LAH/BNP began the formal process of establishing a community Board of Directors, defining their geographic boundaries, developing bylaws, applying for non-profit 501(c)(3) status, and affiliating with the national organization. Today NSEAM LAH/BNP serves over 120 elders and in 2000 was the recipient of a SHARE Leadership Award for "fostering healthy aging across cultures" from SmithKline Beecham and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in recognition of the Program's exceptional work in the Near Southeast and Morningside neighborhoods of central Fort Worth.
Over the next four years under the guidance of Ms. Laurents, four more programs began in areas with high percentages of unserved and underserved elders. Amistades LAH/BNP serves Fort Worth's Near Northside Hispanic community. Good N.E.W.S. LAH/BNP has taken on the challenges of serving many isolated elders in a 200 square mile rural area surrounding Azle and Springtown in northwest Tarrant County. Keene Kares LAH/BNP serves elders in Keene, Texas, south of Fort Worth. The newest Texas Program, Winnsboro LAH/BNP (April, 2000), located 150 miles east of Fort Worth, provides services in a rural community of 5,000 residents, one quarter of whom are elders.
Under the leadership of the National Resource Center, Elderberry Institute Texas Resource Center provides model dissemination and program support assistance to communities across the state of Texas.
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