Over the last seven years, Karen Bump has worked 65-80 hours a week to establish communities of care for aging families.

In her day job, Karen runs Neighbor-to-Neighbor, a faith in action volunteer program. Above and beyond the duties associated with that, she runs the Elderbuilders partnership, through which more than 5,000 elders have received the assistance they need to remain living safely and independently in their homes.

Karen founded the Elderbuilders partnership in 1998, and the organization has a history of outreach to six rural areas in and around Prescott Valley, Ariz. The Elderbuilder group has established model programs like the Senior Moment television show, the Elderly Consumer Assistance, the Home Safety Project offering lifesaving emergency access tools, and the Prescription Assistance Program.

Karen also has worked to build partnerships focused on shared program development, cooperative ventures, and problem-solving that empower seniors and their families to build reciprocal care communities. She was a finalist for the Health Leadership Fellows program under the Kellogg Foundation, an invited presenter at the First International Rural Aging Conference in 2000, and was recently selected as the “Small Nonprofit Executive Director of the Year” by an organization of her peers.

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