Elder-Help, the agency that directs Aging As Ourselves (AAO), a multi-agency collaborative that provides culturally appropriate services and resources to GLBT seniors in San Diego County, announced the beginning of February that it needed $50,000 by month’s end. However, with only a few days left, the collaborative has raised only a tenth of what is needed, falling $45,000 short.

Services and staff are likely to be cut.

“It was the economic realities that put us in this economic position,” said Leane Marchese, executive director of AAO.

Since 2005, a year after the collaborative began; AAO has received a $50,000 grant from the Richard Wood Foundation. The foundation requires the AAO to match that amount with an additional $50,000, bringing in $100,000 of total funding. Every year, AAO has depended on local donors and sponsors to raise the matching funds. Last month, however, an undisclosed sponsor pulled its funding. AAO is now left with a $45,000 gap.

“Each year for the past three and a half years, we’ve had to have the match in order to get the national money and we got that match. It only started to become a problem when the economic realities started impacting the local foundations,” Marchese said.

In addition to Elder-Help, AAO includes four other nonprofit organizations including S.A.G.E. (Seniors Active in a Gay Environment), Family Health Centers of San Diego, The San Diego LGBT Community Center and Elder Law and Advocacy. AAO provides everything from in-home care management, legal assistance, mental health counseling, social activities, and referrals for housing, transportation, and meal delivery.

Each participating organization provides a unique set of services to the GLBT senior community; working collaboratively ensures that GLBT seniors get the multiple services they need in a manner that is both culturally sensitive and respectful of their divergent backgrounds and identities.

If Elder-Help cannot come up with $45,000, then it will lose $100,000 and will have to substantially reduce services and programming, including its mental health and legal counseling and social activities. Other programs including social support groups, one being the prostate cancer support group, and its GLBT-focused case-management program will have to be cut, Marchese said.

“That would be catastrophic for many many people who rely on this program,” she said, adding that Elder-Help is attempting to extend the deadline for obtaining the funds.

One service, funded by AAO is the Monday night GLBT prostate support group at S.A.G.E. Al Mazer, co-leader of the group, said the group is crucial.

“There are so many issues that gay men in particular deal with. One thing that almost everyone that has come through this group [talks about] is the comfort level with discussing very intimate stuff is so far beyond what they would have gotten from a straight group.”

Another service AAO provides is a GLBT senior case-management program at Elder-Help. Elizabeth Zdradzinski, who runs the program, said her transgender clients are grateful for staff being nonjudgmental and culturally sensitive.

“What they seem most grateful for is just somebody who is not going to judge them, who can sit and listen and not flinch because they might mention something that’s uncomfortable and be as compassionate as possible, and then give them culturally competent referrals,” a case worker said.

Elder-Help’s clients say AAO is vital: “I was scared that I could possibly lose her,” said Isha, whose partner Donna was diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer last year.

While Donna was undergoing treatment, Isha contacted David Van Gilder, senior services coordinator at The San Diego LGBT Community Center, an Aging As Ourselves collaborator.

“David was a great support to me. He introduced me to a couple of lesbian widows whom I became friends with and who supported me. He also helped me learn some things that I needed to learn and get connected to some other people who were very helpful to me and got me through this rough time,” Isha said.

Elena, who is 62 and identifies as transgender, goes to AAO for case management and social activities.

“I don’t know what I would do without them. I go there just about every day to say ‘hi’ to everybody,” Elena said.

Since finding out about the funding shortfall, Marchese has been on a journey to find the matching funds.

“We have probably gone to no less than 15 foundations. We have put the word out to individuals. We have gone to corporations – and some local donors in town – to try to make this happen,” Marchese said, adding she’s “promising response” since announcing the shortfall.

“The GLBT senior population is gaining some attention in national circles, statewide circles and funding circles. As the economy gets better, there will be even more attention and funding opportunities. We just have to get through these next nine months.”

Last year, Aging As Ourselves provided services to nearly 2,000 GLBT seniors in San Diego County.