Connections at Home Reports Back on 2023 Impact Grant
Grant Helps Connect Socially Isolated Seniors in Essex County to Friends and Loved Ones
Essex County, NJ, October 2, 2025
Connections at Home (CAH), Impact100 Essex’s 2023 Impact Grant recipient, recently shared an update on how their $100,000 award has transformed lives. Spread over two years, the grant has provided 85 homebound seniors with GrandPad tablets, free tech support, and care from dedicated social workers—lifelines of connection, independence, and joy.
“Funding for a small nonprofit is extremely hard to come by,” says CAH Executive Director Alex Kent. “This grant has made a huge difference in the lives of socially isolated seniors—a group too often overlooked and neglected when it comes to funding and support. We are profoundly grateful to Impact100 Essex for helping us bring connection and care into their lives.”
Mireille D., 69, has been a wheelchair user since late 2024 after a long hospitalization. With the help of her physical therapist and CAH social worker, she’s regaining strength and rebuilding her life. Her GrandPad has become her window to the world—40 hours a week of video calls, games, articles, and family connections. When CAH helped her move into a more accessible home, staff and volunteers continued to step in—picking up prescriptions, helping her navigate appointments, and ensuring she was never alone in her challenges.
Dolores L., 96, is another joyful GrandPad user. After surgery and a long stay in rehab, her device became her daily comfort—linking her to her children, grandchildren, and even new great-grandchildren in France. Her daughter shared that bringing the GrandPad to her rehab facility “made a world of difference”—Dolores could once again see faces she loved, play games, listen to music, and fill her days with connection instead of loneliness.
For Inshinali Z., 82, the computer provided by CAH has become, as he puts it, “my whole life—it means the world to me.” Living alone, he uses it to stay informed and uplifted. When he needed help getting onto YouTube and Facebook, the CAH tech support line spent 45 minutes walking him through it. “The man was so kind and patient,” Inshinali said. “It was like a gift from God.”
These are just a few of the stories that capture what Impact100 Essex’s generosity has made possible.
The impact echoes through every message, every smile, every video call. As one client, Marianne C., 74, simply wrote to her social worker: “I love you all so much. :)”
The grant from Impact100 Essex is having an effect like a coin flipped into the ocean; it’s trickling outward, making waves in the lives of people who need just a little assistance.
About Impact 100 Essex:
Impact100 Essex is a giving circle founded and funded by women in Essex County. Our mission is to engage women in collective giving, to provide transformative grants to organizations that serve underrepresented communities in Essex County, NJ, and to spur local non-profits to dream big – and succeed. Each year, Impact100 Essex awards a grant of $100,000 to support an important, innovative project managed by a local non-profit organization addressing the needs of historically underrepresented communities.