ABRAZAR: Embrace, Educate & Empower
ABRAZAR is dedicated to promoting the general welfare and prosperity of very poor to medium income seniors and families in Orange County through programs that improve health, nutrition, socialization, lifelong learning and economic self sufficiency in culturally sensitive ways. Siince the mid 1970's, ABRAZAR has been meeting the needs of low-income seniors and families across Orange County with special focus on the needs of those who live alone, are isolated and frail, immigrants, Hispanics and Vietnamese. ABRAZAR has earned an outstanding reputation among Orange County service providers as well as local residents. This reputation and trust has resulted in large numbers of clients using our services. Last year, the program served over four thousand (4,000) unduplicated seniors.
ABRAZAR has been a service provider under contract with the Office on Aging since its founding in 1975. The agency’s programs serve seniors who experience isolation, due to language and/or culture, and provides this high need population with services that otherwise might not be available to them, or who might not access the services on their own. The incorporation of a multilingual program staff has been a key component in reaching this special population. Because the staff speaks English, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese and live within the community they serve, they are very familiar with the language, culture and customs of the clients. The program staff receives specialized and ongoing training to help all clients receive the broad range of services and programs available.
Our programs provide activity scheduling, commodity services, outreach services, and interpretation/translation services. Activity scheduling is designed to attain and/or maintain physical and mental well-being such as recreation, music, creative arts, physical activity, education, leadership development and other supportive services. Commodity services provide assistance in the form of commodities, surplus food distribution, emergency cash assistance, discount cards and vouchers. Outreach services include interventions (one-on-one contacts) with individuals initiated by our agency or other service provider for the purpose of identifying potential clients (or their age 60+ caregivers) and encouraging their use of existing programs and services. Interpretation/Translation services are provided in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog for older individuals and their caregivers.