VASIA volunteers have a unique opportunity to provide crucial personal advocacy for a segment of the population which is often unseen and thus overlooked.

I have been involved with the VASIA Program in Johnson County for over three years. I have been a volunteer advocate for three protected persons during that time. Being a volunteer advocate has been a very rewarding experience for me. It has taught me to be inquisitive, patient, persistent, and even determined in some cases to meet the needs of my protected persons who can no longer do so on their own. Each protected person comes with their own set of circumstances, but the common thread is that they need someone to care about them and their needs, and I feel blessed to be part of an organization that provides assistance when they need it the most.

Congratulations on your successful grant application on behalf of VASIA to provide Knox boxes to vulnerable seniors! Working with seniors for whom frequent entry by emergency personnel is required, I know the Knox box will increase safety and efficiency immeasurably. Thank you! In addition, on behalf of the Franklin Active Adult Center and the members VASIA has provided assistance to over the past months, thank you for your continued support of seniors on so many other fronts as well. Within our guidelines and available resources, the AAC provides care and support for 400 members and the surrounding senior community as a whole. Through the years I have sometimes been presented with critical and emergent circumstances that I felt powerless to address. VASIA has become my go-to for needs that fall outside of our scope of delivery and for those where time is especially critical. As I write this I am reminded of the individual who made us aware of a risky home environment and crucial medical needs. We contacted you on his behalf and within 24 hours he was safely moved to an assisted living facility which he regards as home and where he is cared for around the clock. Another was a victim of neglect and money mismanagement from caregivers. He is now protected, both medically and financially, and is thriving. In closing, kudos on the implementation of the new Knox box system and for the valuable role you play in the senior community. Keep up the good work! The AAC and I are proud to partner with you on behalf of the welfare of seniors in Johnson and Shelby County.

My name is Ebbie Crawford. Please allow me to tell you some of my experiences as a VASIA Guardian in the Johnson/Shelby VASIA Program. Prior to my joining VASIA Johnson/Shelby County in the fall of 2017, I spent 24+ years as a CASA Johnson County volunteer. Over the years, I saw the ever-growing need for special, trained volunteers to provide Guardianship supervision to people who were at risk for negligence and/or abuse of various kinds. I learned of the VASIA Johnson/Shelby County Program not long after I retired as an active CASA volunteer and felt the new “pull” to become a part of this important work. In my almost-three years as a Volunteer Guardian, I have worked with five senior/incapacitated adults, family members and medical professionals. In all, my Protected Persons gained the welcome attention and needs-based care that each deserved. As examples, through my VASIA training, I was able to aid three Memory Care facilities in providing end-of-life care and dignified funerals for three of my Protected People, two of whom had lost family connections until the VASIA Guardian searched for and found some. The third Protected Person had no family who was interested in participating in a funeral rite; but VASIA Guardian was able to help provide a dignified burial with the help of a compassionate funeral home director. VASIA Guardians help navigate Medicaid and other health insurance issues, visit our Protected People on a consistent basis, give permission for various kinds of personal care for a nursing home resident, and provide supervision of any assets which may still belong to an infirm senior adult. As the VASIA Program gains recognition, there are more and more requests for Guardianship assistance from all areas in both Johnson and Shelby County. Our original Director, Joe Erickson, was responsible for launching VASIA under the supervision of Judge Barton, Johnson County Superior Court 1; now, under Lauren Rynerson, present Director, and Rita Janis, Assistant Director, VASIA Johnson/Shelby County continues to address the needs of our “At-Risk” adults in a compassionate and efficient way. Adequate funding sources from various tax revenues along with available grants will go a long way toward making VASIA a true asset for addressing the needs of our most vulnerable citizens.

Please allow this letter to serve as my personal experience I have had with Johnson County VASIA Program. As you may be aware, the Franklin Township Trustee's Office has a Social Security Payee Program. When the Social Security Administration deems it necessary for an individual receiving any type of Social Security to have another individual/agency maintain their income, the Township Office is capable and approved by the SSA to do so. We started this program in this office in late 2016 and currently assist 16 clients with their Social Security income. With that being said, we work closely with the V ASIA Program as we share some of the same clients. Lauren and I have had countless hours of conversations regarding clients and potential client's situations and she has been extremely helpful to my office. I was recently honored to be asked to serve on VASIA's Board and look forward to the future collaboration between my office and this Program.

I am the Family and Youth Minister at Turning Point Church in Franklin. Part of my job is to help anyone in our congregation with the real challenges that they may face in their day to day lives. Some of the issues our members experience include but are not limited to; clinical mental health problems, suicidal thoughts, depression, unemployment, financial challenges, homelessness, marital problems, children with ADHD and other behavioral issues and mental and physical disabilities. In some cases these challenges lead to the inability to make good decisions in part or completely. We also have a ministry that reaches out beyond our own membership to the community to help provide financial relief for utility bills, medical expenses, rent/housing and food to name a few. We are staffed to provide pastoral and clinical counseling here at TPC but as you can imagine, between our own members and the people from our community, there are times when we are not equipped to handle some of the situations that arise. I'd like to give a couple of examples where VASIA has been instrumental in providing assistance that was beyond our capabilities. A few months ago we became acquainted with a women through our community benevolence program and weekly community meal that connected with our church and became a regular attendee and eventually a member. As our relationship with her grew and we continued to provide her assistance with her daily life struggles it became apparent that clinical mental illness was at the root of many of her issues. This suspicion was confirmed by a call to her adult daughter in another state. Her daily struggles included an inability to keep a job or a place to live. She was provided stays at motels several times, a church member even opened her home to her. After these attempts to help failed she was accepted into the transitional housing program through the trustee but still struggled to make appropriate choices, due to her mental state, that enabled her to stay in that program. Since it was the Winter months it eventually became clear that she was in real physical danger from exposure. At this point I was able to call Lauren Rynerson at VASIA. Lauren was instrumental in seeking out the help of other agencies in Franklin and Johnson County to get the process started in getting this person the help she needed. She had refused to accept the help offered to her in a face to face meetings because her mental health did not allow her to see the immediate threat she was facing by her own bad choices. The situation with this woman was one of the reasons for the emergency mental health response team that was recently formed. VASIA has also been very helpful with a longtime family here at TPC. We have a woman who is 60 years old and is on Social Security Disability. One of her adult daughters lives at home with her. She has always struggled with mental challenges such as depression and bi-polar and is very dependant on her mother. As a single mom with her own unique challenges and at 60 years old it is becoming more and more difficult for her to provide the care her daughter needs. As a young adult her daughter would like to live independently but is not capable to do so in the traditional manner. TPC has been an active part of this family's support system for many years but their situation has recently become more than we are equipped to handle on our own. Lauren has been able to become a stabilizing part of this family's life, helping them on many fronts. The daughter, just this week, was able to move into an apartment complex specifically designed for adults with her type of challenges. This is a victory and an improvement in quality of life for the mother and daughter both that would not have been possible without VASIA's help. Our goal as a church in the Franklin community is to show the love of Christ to all we encounter and by doing so make their lives better, not only spiritually but physically. Because of our association with VASIA I know that we have the ability to provide a connection to help people with real life challenges that are beyond what we may be equipped to handle on our own.