The 2008 Arnold Keller Jr. Award, given annually by the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, will go this year to Capitol Hill Village for the “Membership Plus” program it has initiated to assist low-income elderly people in receiving services that will enable them to stay in their own homes as they age. Executive Director Gail Kohn describes the award as “a terrific vote of confidence in what we are doing.”

The inspiration for Capitol Hill Village came three years ago to long-time Hill resident Geoff Lewis in the form of an article in the AARP magazine describing a program in Boston called Beacon Hill Village. In exchange for an annual fee, members there receive referrals for medical and household services, including meals delivered to their homes, rides to appointments, gardening assistance, house remodeling – services that allow residents, even those without family close by, to remain in their homes as they age. Lewis, whose own mother had spent an unhappy year at the end of her life in assisted living, remembers thinking, “Hey, I want to stay in my home as I get older. This seems like a good idea.”

He soon realized there were others who shared his interest. Conversations on street corners led to bi-weekly meetings of a core group of Hill residents convinced that such an organization could work here. They came up with a plan to create Capitol Hill Village, and many members made substantial financial contributions to help get it launched. Under the guidance of Hill lawyer Alan Dye, they applied for and received status as a nonprofit organization. Nicky and Steve Cymrot of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation and Riverby Books provided a meeting place and steady encouragement. East Capitol Street resident Larry Molumby volunteered to serve as treasurer, retired science writer Norman Metzger became vice president and, and as Lewis remembers it, “as usual, no one wanted to be president. So I said I would do it.”

Besides Lewis, the Cymrots, Molumby and Metzger, the group that created Capitol Hill Village included Judy and Mike Canning, Neal Mann (who provided much-needed technical assistance in getting the office set up) and Deborah Edge, Hal and Janice Gorgon, Bob Gutman, Sig Cohen, Lois Kauffman, Patrick McClintock, Ed Missaiaen, and Mary Procter, former director of Friendship House, who will take over in the fall as the new president of the board. A neighbor, whom Geoff Lewis had helped during his wife’s terminal illness, offered the basement apartment in his home as the organization’s first office – free of charge.

Last spring, Lewis traveled to Boston for a conference sponsored by Beacon Hill Village, and on the plane he met another person going to the same place. She was Gail Kohn, a nationally known expert on issues relating to aging who for 19 years had been director of Collington Episcopal Life Care Community in Mitchellville, Maryland, and had served as a consultant on a range of issues. She was staying at the same hotel as Lewis, and by the end of the conference it was clear that she and Capitol Hill Village were a good match. She took over as executive director in early May. “We couldn’t have found a better director,” says Lewis.

Kohn is equally enthusiastic about the relationship. Under her leadership, Capitol Hill Village has established a list of vetted vendors available to members and, in a departure from the Boston model, has attracted a large number of volunteers, men and women anxious to offer their services to neighbors as drivers, gardeners, handymen and advocates with doctors, medical insurance companies, home repair personnel – whatever might be needed by an older person. She has also initiated sing-alongs, classes and workshops for village members. An upcoming evening, for example, will feature a local couple who will share with members of the village their experience adapting their house and their lives when one of them contracted a debilitating illness.

Kohn is particularly enthusiastic about the “Membership Plus” program, which offers membership to families with incomes under $50,000 and to individuals with incomes under $40,000. Individuals pay $100 a year and receive $250 worth of coupons they can use for services with vetted vendors; families pay $200 and receive coupons worth $375. “My vision,” she says, “is to extend Capitol Hill Village so that regardless of income or connections, everyone in the community can stay in their own homes.”

The Arnold Keller Jr. award is $10,000, and it will be given at the annual Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards dinner at the Folger Library on May 14.