In January 2022, the SCAN Foundation distributed vital resources to the Inland Coalition on Aging (ICA) to create a local Master Plan for Aging for the Inland Empire. That plan greatly benefited Inland Caregiver Resource Center (ICRC), a non-profit organization that assists families and communities coping with and managing the challenges of aging and caregiving.
Several years later, after meeting initial deadlines, the funding stopped. But a recent grant from Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) through the Community Impact Fund has become a saving grace.
“Thanks to the IECF funding, we now get the opportunity to go back to the plan,” said ICRC’s Executive Director Carmen Estrada. “We were able to bring in a consultant to help guide us as we employ the activities and the goals identified in the Master Plan. That’s crucial because a lot of times you create plans and they just kind of sit on a shelf.”
“The Community Foundation stepped up to help us further the project, implement the goals, and continue this important work,” she added.
To be sure, the initial ICA funds helped ICRC assess and discuss what the region needed.
“At the time, we really were and still are focused on how we can best age in the Inland Empire,” Estrada said. “Especially because we know that by 2060, it has been projected that individuals over the age of 65 are going to increase dramatically—that’s the highest of the entire state and in our region.”
ICRC’s work is forever ongoing.
Funding helps the nonprofit unify key stakeholders and also to create and manage everything from an advisory committee and implementing an assessment to hosting focus groups across several counties. Asking core questions about such things as transportation, behavior health, social supports, Alzheimer’s, and related dementia as well as caregiving and healthcare access, is important.
To that end, ICRC’s consultant is working with action teams that were developed.
“Six action teams were developed and began meeting last September,” Estrada said. “These teams are composed of various leaders and professionals across both counties. Again, the goal is for both counties to work together to implement this plan. The consultant will continue to help us find even more funding for specific projects.”
She noted that the plan also serves as a blueprint for anyone in the community who provides services to key populations.
“This has to be a collective effort,” Estrada stressed. “It really needs to be done in community.”
These efforts are part of a bigger matrix, as ICRC has long provided vital services to the region. Several of its programs stand out.
Thrive at ICRC, for instance, uses cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce depressive symptoms and improve quality of life for seniors. The PEARLS program, which is used nationwide, is also effective in how its evidence-based approach manages to reduce depressive symptoms and improve the quality of life for seniors.
ICRC Senior Support Services and ICRC Family Caregiver Services, which covers family caregivers caring for seniors, veterans, brain impaired individuals, and all those who can no longer care for themselves, are significant tentpoles within the nonprofit.
“We’re committed to what we do here,” Estrada said. “I’d love people to know more about the Master Plan because having both counties collaborate and having the support of both boards of supervisors is huge. A lot of times we don’t have both counties working together, especially when it comes to funding.
“Our area is generally funded a lot less than other areas across the bank,” she added.
This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise, April, 2026.
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