So it made sense to her to promote an internship program partnering with Covia’s Resident Service Coordinators to encourage a new generation of social workers.

Covia has been offering internships for the past 5 years, associated with USC’s Davis School of Gerontology and CSULA; this fall, they have launched a new partnership with the Social Work department at San Jose State University.

“Before we have an intern at our sites, we want to make sure we’re going to be a good fit for them and they’ll be a good fit for us,” says Shannon Wetters, Lead Resident Service Coordinator at Emerson Village in Pomona. “Are they looking for administrative work? Are they looking for management research? Or are they interested in actually working one on one with older adults? If their goal is to work with older adults, if that’s their true passion, then here at Emerson, they are a perfect fit.”

Interns spend 20 to 24 hours per week working with residents. Due to COVID-19, some of the work is now done remotely, but the Covia team ensures that the interns still get the experience they’re looking for. At Emerson Village, the intern is setting up phone visits with residents, or meet at an appropriate distance from residents in Wetters’ large office while she listens to the interaction, sitting in the hallway.

Pamela Ogawa-Boon, Lead Resident Service Coordinator at Lytton Gardens in Palo Alto, is supervising her first intern this fall. A Masters of Social Work student at San Jose State working toward her certificate in gerontology, Alanah Rosembloom will spend 24 hours per week assisting residents at Lytton Gardens as well as at Shires Memorial Center in San Jose. As a first time mentor, Ogawa-Boon is looking forward to bouncing ideas back and forth with someone eager to be part of the process of serving seniors. “It’s a win-win for everybody,” she says.

The influence of the internship program has reached far beyond Covia’s communities. In addition to the work these interns have done in communities where Covia has Resident Service Coordinator contracts, they have taken what they’ve learned to the communities – and countries – they call home.

Wetters has mentored interns from all over the world, providing experience for students from China, Mexico, and currently South Korea. Wetters shares that her current intern Seungjae Lee, whose family owns a nursing home, “wants to be able to take a lot of the knowledge he’s getting here and take it back to his family. Additionally, he wants to start educating the younger population, teaching them how to prepare their loved ones for the aging process.”

“They’re learning a lot here and they want to take it back there and start something new that they don’t have in their country right now,” says Wetters. She shares that her intern from Mexico five years previously “had no idea if she’d even want to work with older adults but it turned out she really found a passion for it.” As a result, “she was hoping to take this information that she gleaned and take it back to Mexico and start teaching family and friends and then hopefully develop a business from that.”

“A lot of people don’t know about service coordination,” Wetters continues. “I didn’t know about it until I went to the University of La Verne, and there was an informational meeting and I thought, I want to do that.”

As a result of Covia’s internship program, still more people are discovering or deepening their passion and skill for working with older adults.

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Established in 2005 as a partnership between Covia and the Episcopal Diocese of California, the Darby Betts fund supports services and programs that benefit seniors in the Episcopal Dioceses of California, Northern California, and El Camino Real.

In 2018, the fund was able to disburse $71,000 among 15 organizations, with grant amounts ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.

Grant recipients and programs for 2018 are:

• Church of the Epiphany, Vacaville: Community Meals program
• Church of the Good Shepherd, Salinas: Senior Lunch program
• Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy Ministry, Milpitas: Inmate Glasses Project
• Covia Community Services: Market Day Senior Nutrition program
• Episcopal Community Services, San Francisco: Canon Kip Senior Center
• Gubbio Project, San Francisco: Day Respite and Breakfast Program
• Holy Child and St. Martin, Daly City: Senior Connections
• Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, Oakland: Caregiving Support Group
• The Living Room, Santa Rosa: Link Lane House
• Meals on Wheels Diablo Region, Walnut Creek: Fall Prevention Program
• Monument Crisis Center, Concord: Senior Nutrition and Wellness program
• Redwood Empire Food Bank, Santa Rosa: Senior Food Security and Hunger Relief
• River City Food Bank, Sacramento: Most Important Meal Program
• Senior Access, San Rafael: Financial Aid for Memory Care Day Program
• Trinity Center, Walnut Creek: Day Shelter

Father Darby Betts was the visionary behind the Covia communities and services that serve seniors, wherever they call home. To qualify for the Darby Betts grant, organizations must operate on a nonprofit basis and demonstrate a clear and dedicated focus on services and programs that benefit older adults living throughout the region covered by the three Episcopal Dioceses in Northern California – from its northern border down to San Luis Obispo. The grants are determined by a committee of representatives from the Episcopal Impact Fund and Covia.

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