The Silicon Valley Healthy Aging Partnership (SVHAP), directed by Tamar Z. Semerjian, Ph.D. and Jennifer Schachner, M.S. has had a busy start to the year. SVHAP is pleased to announce that we have received $90,000 from The Health Trust to continue our work for another 18 months. The Health Trust has also included SVHAP in a grant for $25,000 from the Council on Aging to fund translation of the Matter of Balance program into Vietnamese and to update and increase the functionality of our website (www.svhap.org). SVHAP was also awarded a grant from El Camino Hospitals for $70,000 to fund work for a Falls Prevention Task Force.

This will primarily involve workshops and outreach to senior serving organizations, their clients, and emergency medical service providers on how to prevent falls in the community. Dr. Semerjian and Ms. Schachner presented the work they have done over the past two years for SVHAP at the Center for Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations (CHAMP) conference on April 5th. The Third Annual SVHAP meeting will be at the Sunnyvale Senior Center from 9 am-12 pm on April 19th, 2013. The meeting will include the announcement of the launch of new SVHAP supported programs, Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance and the Arthritis Foundations’ Walk with Ease. Programs already supported by SHVAP are: Enhance Fitness, Matter of Balance, and Better Choices Better Health. SVHAP looks forward to another productive year of making evidence-based health promotion programs widely available to all older adults in Santa Clara County.