On Tuesday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 am, local Family Caregiver Resource Specialist Brenda Reece will speak at the Boone Sunrise Rotary meeting at Bone Marriott for the Club’s first meeting of 2016.

Brenda Reece holds a degree in Social Work, with graduate studies in Gerontology, and has nearly twenty years of experience in the Healthcare and Aging fields.  Note: There will be no meeting on Tuesday, 12/5.

Prior to her current position, she was the Director of Social Services at Cannon Memorial Hospital. She has been employed as the Family Caregiver Resource Specialists (FCRS) for the High Country Area Agency on Aging since 2007.  She has the responsibility of administering the National Family Caregiver Support Program for the seven county High Country region.  This involves developing multifaceted systems of support services for family caregivers, including information & assistance; individual counseling; support groups and training; respite; and supplemental services.  The key responsibility of the FCRS is to leverage existing resources to best serve family caregivers. To accomplish this goal, Ms. Reece co-founded the High Country Caregiver Foundation (HCCF) and has served as its Executive Director since its inception.

The goal of High Country Caregiver Foundation is to assist families and communities master the challenges of caring for adults with chronic and or debilitating illness as well as, grandparents raising grandchildren and other kinship caregivers.  HCCF is the leading provider of support services to family caregivers in the Region. Since its inception, the organization has awarded more than five hundred and eighty $500 respite vouchers and has provided assistance to thousands of families, enabling them to better care for their loved ones. HCCF’s ongoing programs include the Respite Voucher Program, Day Break, 2 social model group respite programs; Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP), assisting kinship caregivers and most recently, Elder Care & Work, a work place initiative.

She is a 2015 recipient of the prestigious National Associations of Area Agencies on Aging 2015 Aging Innovations Award.