Duly Noted

Banks aid elderly veterans with crime prevention

The Michigan Bankers Association (MBA) has joined with the American Bankers Association and the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation (SHCPF) to ensure that 40,000 Veterans living in 160 veteran nursing homes in the U.S. may live out their lives in safe, secure, enhanced quality-of-life environments free from daily fear of crime, abuse, and deprivation of personal freedom. The program is provided through SHCPF’s Senior Crimestoppers.

“Choiceone Bank has provided $250,000, Sturgis Bank & Trust has provided $500,000 and a third bank committed another $500,000 in funded loans,” said Dennis Koons, MBA president/CEO. “It is the MBA’s goal to work with its members to fully fund two State Veteran’s homes in Michigan; [including] a 758 bed facility in Grand Rapids. With these banks leading the charge, MBA member banks have funded 5% of the total $25,025,000 loans needed.”

“Protecting our nation’s 40,000 elderly veterans living in long-term care is a need that must be addressed, and I can’t think of a better way to get this done than by asking every bank in the country to allocate a portion of their annual Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) budget to securing the Foundation’s successful Senior Crimestoppers program,” said SHCPF Chairman Mr. Charles C. King III.

The program is a proprietary operation of the SHCPF, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit established to provide a vehicle for banks to earn CRA credit through support of nursing home residents, who are classified as low-to-moderate income individuals.

Senior Crimestoppers is built on a zero tolerance-to-crime platform vigilantly maintained for the residents, staff, management and visitors. Each resident is provided their own personal lock box to safeguard valuables. In addition, cash rewards up to $1,000 are posted on every crime incident that is reported to the SCS call center, paid anonymously to tipsters. In addition, all facilities in the program display a membership charter and are provided regular in-service training for residents, staff and management together with employee oath sheets, yard signs and quarterly reporting of crime prevention status.

Under the bank initiative, each Veteran resident will be provided a specially designed Veterans personal lock box. In addition, SHCPF will provide each State Veterans Nursing Home with its annual Time of Your Life video exhibit, and each facility will receive an annual cash contribution for a Wish Comes True grant to be given to select Veterans.

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