What started as a way to connect with grandparents during the pandemic has grown into a nonprofit organization about to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
When the United States entered lockdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Raghav Singh worried about his grandmothers, who lived overseas in India.
At the time, Singh was a sophomore at Clements High School in Sugar Land. He said he noticed the disproportionate ways quarantine affected senior citizens, and while he couldn’t reach his own grandmothers, he decided to help someone else’s.
Singh said he founded Silver Heart Care in the fall of 2020 to bridge the gap between what seniors have and what they need.
“At the time, it was really just about what we could do to help out people that are nearest to us, just people in our own neighborhood,” Singh said.
Now, almost five years later, the nonprofit runs several different programs, raises thousands of dollars annually and serves seniors all across the Greater Houston area.
The approach
Singh said Silver Heart Care’s largest program is its Senior Services Program, offering different types of customized care to those who need it most.
“What we’ve learned is that there’s no one need that seniors have; it really depends on person to person,” he said. “We try our very best to provide individualized care to anyone who needs it.”
Through its youth volunteers program, the nonprofit provides a variety of free services, from driving clients to appointments to helping with household chores. Singh said the youth also receive something in return: the intergenerational exchange of wisdom and knowledge.
“One of the biggest philosophies that we wanted to incorporate is the connection between the youth and the seniors,” Singh said. “The youth can do what the seniors can’t, but the seniors can teach what the youth don’t know.”
Additionally, the nonprofit provides technological assistance, helps with grocery shopping and distributes food to seniors in need.
One Silver Heart Care program includes technology classes, where youth volunteers travel to senior homes, showing them how to use their devices. (Courtesy Silver Heart Care)
The framework
Another essential aspect of Silver Heart Care’s mission is its Wheels of Wellness transportation program.
Singh said the nonprofit coordinates and pays for seniors to use the rideshare service Uber Health, which helps reach seniors across the Greater Houston area.
“After speaking with a lot of seniors and with a lot of doctors, we noticed that many senior citizens aren’t able to make it to their doctor’s appointments, not because they don’t want to attend, but because they don’t have the means to get there,” Singh said.
Just recently, Singh was able to coordinate transportation services with a senior in the area whose family lived out of state and had trouble getting them to and from the hospital.
To finance the ride services, the organization—which is fully community-funded—hosts an annual fundraising event, typically in the form of a charity run that takes place during the spring.
Last year, Singh said the run raised almost $30,000, which was allocated to funding the rides, as the nonprofit makes the service completely free.
The nonprofit partners with local community organizations, such as the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce, Sugar Land Fire Department and regional representatives. (Courtesy Silver Heart Care)
Diving deeper
Since founding the nonprofit, Singh is a junior in college and has moved to study finance at The University of Texas at Austin. He said it hasn’t been easy, but with the proper planning, he’s been able to make it work.
“It involves a lot of taking calls in the middle of my classes or in between my classes,” Singh said. “Where it really gets tricky is when we’re dealing with our in-person transportation, because that’s something that has to be dealt with right then and there.”
Singh said he plans to grow Silver Heart Care’s outreach over the next five years to ensure the people who need the services most know this type of help exists.