Some monthly, regional, or Yearly Meetings have funds available to assist with health care, housing, or home care needs of aging Friends and/or others facing challenges. You may want to check with your own Meeting to find out if such funds are available. Even if financial support is not available, New York Yearly Meeting ARCH program volunteers may also be able to help you find county or other resources.

New York Yearly Meeting ARCH Program: In New York Yearly Meeting, Aging Resources Consultation and Help (ARCH) offers older adults and persons with disabilities the information they need to enhance quality of life. This is achieved through full use of Monthly Meeting and community resources. While this is not a financial granting program, ARCH volunteers can help you find needed resources. Education and insight is nurtured through workshops, printed material, website information, ARCH Visitors, and advice from trained consultants. One-on-one listening is available for individuals and families as they deal with the last third of life.

An ARCH Visitor is a Friend in NYYM who has taken the ARCH Visitor training program because s/he has a call to visit seniors and adults with disabilities within one hour from home. Visitors provide a listening ear and, hopefully, a connection to appropriate resources to improve the life of the person visited. Visitors maintain a close relationship to their Monthly and Regional Meetings, and stay in touch with the ARCH Coordinators. Please see our contact information in “Contact Us” to get help or to volunteer, or follow the link provided below.

Friends Foundation for the Aging: A resource for Friends programs, and one of the funders of this website, is Friends Foundation for the Aging. This is the new name for McCutchen Friends Home, which previously operated a residential and skilled nursing facility in North Plainfield, NJ, on properties given by the McCutchen family. In early 2007, in response to multiple external factors, the McCutchen board decided to close the Home, sell the properties, and pursue other ways to fulfill its mission of supporting the elderly.

The foundation supports programs that advance Quaker values in senior care, that provide new or expanded options to support seniors in their own homes, and that promote career development in the field of long term care. It anticipates that the major portion of its grants will be relatively large, multi-year grants to new, collaborative ventures. It also expects to provide support to new initiatives in support of seniors in New York Yearly Meeting. Its geographic focus, at least initially, will be New York, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION: Click on the blue text below to be directed to outside websites that offer additional information on this topic. The websites will open in a new window, when you are done, simply click out of that window and you will be back on this site.

NYYM ARCH Program

Some monthly, regional, or Yearly Meetings have funds available to assist with health care, housing, or home care needs of aging Friends and/or others facing challenges. You may want to check with your own Meeting to find out if such funds are available. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has several grants available to PYM Friends and Meeting attenders and at times others who have a close relationship with Friends within the Yearly Meeting area.

Aging Granting Group Funds for qualified individuals or organizations providing care to elderly PYM members, for direct assistance and projects to benefit elderly PYM Friends (see fund listings for details). Applications for most funds should come from the Clerk of Overseers or clerk of appropriate Monthly Meeting committee on behalf of elderly Friends in need of financial assistance. Click here to be directed to PYM website information on Aging Granting Group Funds . Aging Granting Group Funds Include:

• The George Abbot Fund: formerly named the Oakwood Manor Fund, was created through the sale of the Pocono Manor. The Pocono Manor property was originally deeded by George Abbott in 1912 to James Moon and others “in trust, to hold and maintain the same for and on behalf of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends… so that the same may be used and occupied for or by said Religious Society of Friends, or by meetings subordinate thereto, or members thereof, groups, classes or individuals, at the discretion of the said trustees….”This fund is used for direct aid and comfort of individual elderly PYM Friends.
• Charles S. and Sarah von L Albertson Fund: established in 1990 by the will of Margaret A. Lawson “to enable or assist elderly persons, preference being given to members of the Religious Society of Friends, to continue to live in their own homes, by providing not only for expenses, including without limit domestic help, nursing care, structural repairs to and maintenance of their homes and other items and expense contributing to their security, well-being and comfort.” This grant assists elderly persons, with preference for residents of the PYM area, to continue to live in their own homes through grants and loans for domestic help, nursing care, home repairs and maintenance, and any other expenses contributing to their well-being.
• Richard Cadbury Fund: established in 1966 by the will of Richard Cadbury, a Friend who brought to the attention of the reunited PYM a need for a Committee on Aging, now the Aging Concerns Group. Cadbury found the committee’s first staff person and bought office furniture from his own funds. He gave the committee wide latitude in the use of his memorial fund “for services and assistance to elderly members of PYM” including grants to individuals and institutions, excluding building purposes or the committee’s operating budget.
• E. Harris Michener Fund: established in 1955 by will of E. Harris Michener, who left equal amounts to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and to Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting “to be used and disbursed… for the sole purpose of assisting and adding to the comfort and care and maintenance of elderly Friends, or such Friends as the respective Board of Trustees shall determine to be in need of some financial assistance, for their proper maintenance, health and comfort, it being my sincere desire that the respective Boards of Trustees shall make proper investigation to determine who such elderly Friends may be in need of some assistance, without such elderly Friends finding it necessary or being required to make application for aid and assistance, which may be supplied by reason of this provision in my last Will and Testament.”
• The Greenleaf Fund: provides grants and loans to elderly Quakers, and those in sympathy with Quakers, who are of modest means and in need of assistance to meet their housing needs or ongoing medical, maintenance, and living costs. Applicants must be 62 years of age or older. The fund does not make grants to organizations. Awards are made as grants or no-interest loans. Applications are considered according to the following priorities:

1. Residents of The Greenleaf’s boarding home
2. Members of Monthly Meetings in Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting
3. Members of another Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
4. 4Those who are in sympathy with Friends (i.e., relatives or affiliates of a Quaker organization), and live in the geographic area defined by Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting
5. Those who are in sympathy with Friends and live in the PYM area

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION: Click on the blue text below to be directed to outside websites that offer additional information on this topic. The websites will open in a new window, when you are done, simply click out of that window and you will be back on this site.

PYM website information about the Greenleaf Fund
Resources for Friends in Maryland, Washington D.C. area and New Jersey