By Liz Dunn, Marketing & Communications Director, NCCOA
Since our founding in 1974, Nassau County Council on Aging has seen the county grow by leaps and bounds. With this growth has come a much larger senior population and a much greater need for programs and services. Following the millennium when seniors comprised 16.2 percent of the population (11,469 people), the next decade saw another 6% increase in our greatest generation (20,098 by 2019).
At the beginning of the new decade, a local resident was selected to lead the organization. Janice Ancrum, a native of Fernandina Beach, joined NCCOA after serving in several nonprofit organizations in Nassau and Duval counties. After graduating from the University of Florida, she served as an employment interviewer for Job Service of Florida on 8th Street. Gaining supervisory experience, she climbed the ladder and capped off her Jacksonville career at the YWCA working with homeless women and children. Janice worked hard to make sure women had access to “wrap-around services” as they transitioned to steady employment and more permanent living situations. After 15 years of a long daily commute and family obligations in Fernandina, the next opportunity was just around the corner.
That’s when a neighbor told her about a Fernandina-based nonprofit looking for a new CEO. A COA board member encouraged her to look into the job; Janice agreed to interview “just for practice,” she recalls. However, during the interview she realized her years of experience led her to that exact opportunity. Janice has been at the NCCOA helm since 2012. She says, “I believe in what I’m doing for Nassau County seniors. Being a public servant is in my heart.”
At that time, the Council needed someone with Janice’s background, initiative and network to provide the foundation for the most needed programs and services for our seniors. With state and federal funding cuts, she executed wider-scale fundraising, leading up to the Support Our Seniors (SOS) Campaign. Working with Board member Rick Keffer, Janice shared that each day, hundreds of seniors in Nassau County hope to move from the waiting list for home-delivered meals and basic in-home services to actually receiving those meals and services. And they did. The SOS effort provided a solution for hundreds of seniors wondering where their next meal would come from. “This should remind us all that through our community’s generosity, we do much more than provide services. We offer hope,” Janice said.
Ongoing nutrition shortfalls dovetailed with the need for a new home base to house and deliver growing programs and services. Realizing the facility on the Baptist Nassau campus had little room for growth, Janice and the Board began looking for alternatives. What began as a plan to build a new facility on North 14th Street morphed to acquiring the existing Rayonier (Raydient Places + Properties) facility on Island Walk Way.
Then, Hurricane Irma came to town. The former Rayonier building sustained more damage than any other facility in Fernandina. With Janice’s leadership, the “Building for Our Future” Capital Campaign took on a new meaning and helped improve the short-term while insurance claims settled.
In our new facility, we continued growing with in-home services through Advocate Home Healthcare, Soup Train providing supplemental meals for homebound seniors and pet therapy helping seniors temper aging challenges. CHORE small home repair continued its march through the county with ramps and grab bars to help seniors age in place. NassauTRANSIT grew the fleet and created a partnership with JTA to provide roundtrip transportation from Yulee to Jacksonville. It seemed as if nothing could slow our growth…until the pandemic in 2020. But that’s a column for the next decade.
Many people know the story of Janice’s first introduction to the Council on Aging. Still in high school, she worked in a summer program that placed students in a nonprofit agency. You guessed it…NCCOA. Thinking the job entailed office work, Janice wore a dress and heels. Instead, she was assigned to do yard work at a senior’s house on South Fletcher. “That’s when I learned humility,” she recounts. “Whatever seniors needed the most, that’s what we did. I spent a good part of my summer pulling weeds and doing housework. It prepared me for a profession of service to our community.”
Janice, we’re so glad it did.
NCCOA celebrates our 50th anniversary at the “Salute to Seniors’ Gala, Saturday, January 20, 2024, 6pm-10 pm, The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. Three-course dinner, dancing, open bar. Tickets are on sale – $250 per person, $2,500 per table of 10. https://www.nassaucountycouncilonaging.org/50thannivsalutetoseniorsgala/. Questions? Contact us at 904-261-0701.