Workshops for preparation of Health Care Proxy and Living Will

This new project is a result of the feedback from ICC members as well as leaders of various organizations

Background: During the course of last year as we have met and worked with our community members, we have found that a very large number (approx. 85 %) of our community members do not know about Health Care Proxy and Living Will. For those who know about this, only one third have in fact prepared such a document. In other words, only 5 % of our community members have prepared this important document.

During the past year, ICC and its volunteers have been to over thirty five (35) events and have worked towards informing, educating and empowering our community to prepare this document with the help of simple, easy to use, fill in the blank document called “Five Wishes”. Five Wishes is acceptable in 40 states as a legal document and over 12 million of these documents have been distributed by its publishers Aging With Dignity. We at ICC have distributed over 3,000 copies at no charge. These were distributed in bilingual format Hindi/English, Gujarati/English, Bengali/English and Urdu/English in addition to English language version.

Recent conversations and inputs from leaders various organizations in the community as well as members, it has become clear that ICC can contribute further in this process by providing guidance in preparation of Health Care Proxy and Living Will by conducting workshop(s).

Workshop: Working jointly with any group, organization and/or local community, ICC would be pleased to offer workshop(s) near you - in your community.

Your organization role, as a co-sponsor:

• Find and reserve a place where 30 to 50 people can get together to prepare this document
• Invite members of your community and / or organization through appropriate announcement(s), such as news letter, email or any other suitable communications for this free workshop
• All adults over the age of 18 can be invited
• Interested persons confirm their plans to attend by email. RSVP can come to you or if you choose, to ICC
• The workshop would take about an hour
• On the day of the workshop, you may welcome the attendees to the meeting on behalf of your organization

What will ICC do?

• We will provide Five Wishes document to the attendees at no charge
• We will conduct workshop to help the attendees prepare Five Wishes document
• We would also announce workshop information on ICC web site and newsletter to invite ICC members to attend the workshop(s)
• We can coordinate event RSVP, if requested

As a result of this workshop, the attendees spend about an hour and at the end of the workshop they leave with completed Health Care Proxy and Living Will in their hands.

As you review and carefully consider this, please feel free to contact ICC for any questions, suggestions or ideas you may have to make this project successful.