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The Washington Home Invests $506K to Launch Senior Wellness Hub for Older Adults in Ward 8

New collaboration features partnership of 13 community organizations delivering an expanded network of health, wellness, and social support to more than 3,709 older adults

WASHINGTON, DC (July 22, 2026)  – As the need for aging care and services for older adults rises across the District, The Washington Home (TWH) has awarded $506,217 to launch the Ward 8 Senior Wellness Hub, an innovative community partnership designed to strengthen how older adults connect with healthcare, wellness programs, and essential support services throughout Ward 8.

Featuring 13 trusted community organizations, the Senior Wellness Hub establishes a neighborhood-based network that aligns medical care, social services, and community resources around the needs of older adults. The collaboration is designed to make services easier to find, easier to access, and more responsive – and will help more than 3,709 older adults maintain their health, independence, and connection to community.

“By bringing organizations together around a shared vision of increasing healthcare access, ensuring food security, and reducing social isolation, we’re building a stronger, more equitable care system that helps older adults age with dignity, purpose, and the support they deserve,” said Crystal Carr Townsend, MPA, CEO of The Washington Home. “Having a connected community of support helps older adults successfully age in place and optimizes resources to reach even more seniors.”

The Ward 8 Senior Wellness Hub Collaboration is part of TWH’s redesigned FY26 grant strategy, which prioritizes collaborative solutions that improve coordination, reduce duplication of services, and create sustainable community impact. In FY26, TWH awarded more than $4.5 million to organizations serving older adults across all eight wards of the District through initiatives focused on healthcare access, social connection, workforce development, and aging in place.

Aligned Services Expand Impact

The Ward 8 collaborative is designed to support two critical areas to influence healthy and connected aging:

Intentional Collaboration
Coordinated referrals and integrative services for expanded access to primary and behavioral healthcare, dementia screening and support, telehealth training, and transportation.

Enhanced Programming
Strengthening of health, wellness, and social activities that increase engagement and support healthy aging.

Network Connections Drive Impact

TWH is proud to partner with these 13 organizations to deliver connected access to medical care, senior wellness centers and medical day-care centers, specialized social programming resources, and more:

    • Bread for the City: Offers client-choice pantry access, leverages food credits with CAFB to expand dignified access.
    • East River Family Strengthening Collaborative (ERFSC)/Bernice Fonteneau Senior Wellness Center (BFSWC): Provides coordinated wellness and social services to reduce isolation and BFSWC provides screenings, telehealth training, and transportation to expand older adults’ access to care.
    • Goods for Good: Provides critical care and goods to underserved and vulnerable neighbors in the Washington, D.C. area, partnering with local nonprofits and volunteers to amplify its impact.
    • Holistic Horsemanship Services: Provides equine-assisted learning fieldtrips to Trillium Farm in Northern Virginia.
    • Iona Senior Services: Operates a Dementia Navigators program, ensuring timely follow-up after screenings and helps families access appropriate services and maintain stability at home. Offers caregiver respite, an information hotline, and social programming.
    • Kingdom Care Senior Village: Helps support aging residents’ health, independence, and resilience to loneliness. Strengthens social ties through a full calendar of activities, personalized outreach, and a peer “buddy” system that encourages participation and mutual support, with regular invitations and reminders to ensure no one is left out.
    • Plants & Blooms Reimagined: Offers nature-based therapeutic programs that use plant and flower activities to promote social connection, mental wellness, and engagement, including pop-up Bloom Mobile events.
    • Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington: Hosts low-vision support groups, tech talks, community events, and caregiver training.
    • Sibley Memorial Hospital and Sibley Senior Association: Provides memory screenings, Club Memory programming, and caregiver support groups to strengthen cognitive health and reduce isolation among older adults and caregivers.
    • SOME: Provides permanent, affordable housing for older adults as well as food, nutritional supplements, medical and safety equipment for clients to age in place. Resources include healthcare screenings, a summer camp, and other social programming.
    • Story Tapestries: Facilitates culturally responsive, art-based workshops, as well as professional development sessions for caregivers.
    • Unity Healthcare: One of the largest networks of community health centers in the country, serving one out of every eight DC residents. Provides preventative dental services and surgeries for seniors in Ward 8 to support oral health.
    • WildTech: Provides basic digital literacy training and device access, as well as virtual training opportunities and technical support, to reduce social isolation.


Senior Wellness Hub Collaborative partners celebrate TWH’s funding of its new grant initiative designed to create a more connected, coordinated approach to older adult care services in the District.

“Health equity begins with ensuring every older adult can easily access the care and support they need to thrive,” said Pamela Pratt, Vice President Grants Management of Unity Health Care. “By bringing together a coordinated network of trusted healthcare and social services providers, we’re removing barriers and meeting older adults where they are – in neighborhoods, community spaces, and other familiar settings. Delivering culturally responsive, whole-person care through both traditional and nontraditional service models empowers older adults to age with dignity, remain connected to their communities, and achieve better health outcomes.”

About The Washington Home

The Washington Home is a private foundation that provides funding to entities that create and deliver innovative, compassionate, and well-managed programs to improve the quality of life for elderly and/or terminally ill residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Founded in 1888, The Washington Home, until recently, provided long-term care to residents of its nursing home facility in upper Northwest Washington, DC, hospice care to patients in their own homes, and care in the in-patient hospice wing of the nursing home.

In recent years, the Board of Directors of The Washington Home directed a repositioning of the organization by ceasing hands-on care and consolidating its financial resources to be deployed for maximum impact in accordance with its longstanding mission. Learn more at www.TheWashingtonHome.org.