Connecting Seniors to Community Through Life-Affirming Programs

For more than a decade, Traci DiGesu has been compassionately supporting seniors as they navigate the later stages of life. But it was her two decades as a costume designer that drew her attention to the unique challenges older populations face in the entertainment industry.

“I knew a lot of folks in the theater who had long careers, and I saw firsthand the challenges they faced in the latter parts of their careers,” DiGesu said. “I saw what it was like to be an older person in New York, and how hard it was. I thought, this is a population that is really vulnerable and we need to be doing more work here. So I went back to school specifically to work with older adults.”

Now, DiGesu leads the senior services program at the Entertainment Community Fund, part of the safety net of services helping those in entertainment and the performing arts. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the largest single financial supporter of the Fund, awarding its programs $6.5 million in 2024.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has a long-standing connection with the Entertainment Community Fund, going back more than 30 years to the creation of the HIV/AIDS Initiative in 1988. Broadway Cares provided the initial funding for the initiative and continues to support the majority of its annual budget.

In 1996, Broadway Cares expanded its contributions to launch the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative. Since then, it has championed a full range of social services, including Artists Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC), Addiction and Recovery Services, The Dancers’ Resource and Broadway Flu Shot Initiative. In 2017, it began supporting the Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts, which provides specialized care for Broadway and performing arts professionals.

Senior Services is an essential component of The Fund’s broader offerings, addressing the individual needs of older adults within this community.

Through DiGesu’s work as a licensed social worker, she has come to understand how the difficulties for seniors are exacerbated by the loss of community after a career in the arts.

“One of the biggest issues everybody faces as they age is role loss,” DiGesu said. “As we age, we lose friends, we may lose a partner. We retire, whether we want to retire or not. It’s particularly dangerous and difficult for entertainment professionals, because when they lose touch with their work life, they lose touch with their community.”

Rebuilding that sense of togetherness is at the heart of DiGesu’s work in the Entertainment Community Fund’s Senior Services program. Supported by a dedicated team of social workers and sustained through continued support from Broadway Cares’ donors, the program offers a broad range of life-affirming services for seniors.

“We are a continuum of services,” DiGesu said. “People often come in because of an incident, like they’re in the hospital and need help with discharge. And while we’re helping with that, we get the full picture of what the difficulties are. Then our social workers may help them gain entry into our assisted living facility in Englewood, NJ, or connect them with our Artists Health Insurance Resource Center to understand what’s available to them with Medicare, or a multitude of other programs.”

DiGesu shared the story of a particularly sociable client who regularly attended weekly coffee hour chats at The Waldman Living Room, The Fund’s Manhattan center aimed at combating social isolation. This outgoing client was a key figure in keeping the group connected beyond these gatherings. It was only after a fall and subsequent hospitalization that DiGesu and her team discovered the extent of the client’s needs.

“She was showing us her resilience and coping skills, but wasn’t showing us the problems that she was facing yet, because it’s really hard to admit when you need help,” DiGesu said. “You’re independent and feeling embarrassed.”

The social workers found that the client’s apartment had become unmanageable, prompting them to create a personalized support plan.

“We worked with the client to restore her apartment, and got her the help she needed so she could return home with an aid,” DiGesu said. “We connected her with services to rehabilitate her physically, and had her attend our Grief Group so she could start working through some other issues. And when she ultimately decided to be in community in a different way, we assisted her with the application to live in our home in Englewood.”

Armed with the full breadth of services at The Fund, and the expertise of its case managers, DiGesu is able to reconnect these clients to what makes the entertainment industry so special: a profound sense of belonging.

“That client still joins our coffee chat group by Zoom,” DiGesu said, with a smile. “The most rewarding part of my job is seeing how people connect to services and get the help they need.”

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Support for the Entertainment Community Fund by Fiscal Year