Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (CARIE)

Who are the people you serve with your mission?

CARIE serves any elder who reaches us without regard to race, gender, ethnicity, religion or other demographic identifier. CARIE's programs assist more than 3,500 individual elders and caregivers annually. The majority of elders assisted are economically insecure and/or physically and/or cognitively frail. Among elders assisted, 92% are low-income, 75% have some degree of disability, and 40% are housing insecure. Sixty-three percent identify as female, and 37% as male; 51% identify as Black or African-American; 39% as Caucasian; 5% as Latinx; and 4% as Asian American. Eight percent of CARIE LINE clients identify as LGBTQ. Another 15,000 elders, and their caregivers are reached through in-person and virtual educational events.

How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

SMS text surveys, Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes, Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees,

How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

What significant change resulted from feedback?

During the pandemic, nursing home residents have been particularly hard hit representing the majority of deaths in Pennsylvania from COVID-19. Unable to visit residents in person, our staff has helped residents get the technology they need to meet virtually. Our staff has been meeting regularly with a group of resident leaders. The information that they have provided has had a profound impact on our advocacy. For example, in the beginning of the pandemic, we were hearing from residents that staff didn't have access to PPE, some weren't using PPE correctly, and the residents themselves did not have PPE. In some cases we were able to help directly; however, this type of information was critical as we advocate for Pennsylvania to mitigate problems related to COVID-19.

With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders,

How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?

Constituent input and feedback is an integral part and focus of all of CARIE's advocacy and each of our programs. Challenges and impediments to accessing needed resources that we become aware of through individual advocacy and assistance informs both our systems level advocacy and our internal and external education programs. Multiple individual clients contacting us about a particular problem will trigger a review to determine whether it is a systemic rather than individual issue. We then consider the most effective way to respond to the needs of client as well as, where appropriate, the needs of older adults more broadly. While we don't have long-term relationships with our clients (we advocate, generally at a time of crisis), we review all feedback and integrate it into our work.

Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,

What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Most of our clients have limited relationships as we provide advocacy, making followup challenging,