The PLOWS Council on Aging is now known as Pathlights.
The name change, more than a year in the works, was announced Tuesday during a virtual event and includes a change in logo, visual identity and tagline. But Executive Director Kenneth Grunke said it is otherwise the same nonprofit, in the same Palos Heights headquarters, offering the same services.
“Even though the brand has changed, the core part of our services remain unchanged,” Grunke said.
The organization’s mission remains helping others navigate and celebrate aging in southwest suburban Cook County through a variety of services, resources and advocacy. Pathlights works with people age 60 and older as well as adults with disabilities to help them live independently. It is designed to be a guide for those individuals — as well as caregivers, families and friends — through the aging process.
That is part of the mindset change Grunke said Pathlights is undergoing. He said they cannot be just a program for “older adults” because everyone is aging.
The change was made after a committee spent a year working with the community to get feedback. It came up with a name that would better service the organization, which has been around for more than 45 years, he said.
The change also was a way to highlight the organization’s mission, rather than the geography defined by PLOWS — which represented the Palos, Lemont, Orland and Worth townships covered by the organization, as well as Stickney, which used to be part of its boundaries.
Grunke noted the former moniker failed to speak to the importance of the organization’s services. He said they also started to feel the name was misleading because people often thought “Council” meant it was government run or owned, which it is not.
“What the community was saying was your brand needs to speak more to your mission,” Grunke said. “We really did think this name spoke more to our efforts. … The name is more about service than service area.”
To avoid any further confusion, for at least several months anything featuring the new branding also will include “formerly known as PLOWS Council on Aging.”
In 2020, Pathlights helped more than 16,000 people across the 20 communities it serves, an uptick of roughly 1,000 people from the year prior. Grunke said that was with the added challenges of the pandemic. But it only strengthened the nonprofit’s resolve to move ahead and evolve to be better equipped to grow post-pandemic.
“Through this process, we’ve seen that even through the most challenging times, the community wants to move forward,” he said.
The services provided by Pathlights include home-delivered meals and safety checks, in-home services, support groups, education, respite for caregivers, protection from abuse, access to benefits for health insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, transportation, property tax savings, assistance for safe transition from hospitals or skilled nursing facilities, shared housing, and general information about resources, according to a news release announcing the name change. Pathlights also pushes for equal access to food, shelter, care and safety.
Grunke said while the pandemic undoubtedly “has really thrown a curveball,” those services were only “minimally interrupted.” Technology has been utilized more than ever, and while the organization has not been able to connect with people as much in person — with the safety of clients and staff taking precedence — it actually saw an increase in calls and well-being checks as people are dealing with isolation.
“On the positive side, we saw an increase in volunteers,” Grunke said. “This pandemic really allowed for us to have different conversations — maybe conversations we put off for too long.”
Grunke said Pathlights also had an increase in home deliveries in 2020, and the pandemic emphasized just how important the organization’s partnerships are to it. He said those community partnerships will be the key to how the nonprofit evolves going forward.
“We have an opportunity to take a look at how we can be more effective in our mission and who else can we involve,” he said. “We are not effective in our mission without our partners. Without them, an individual may not receive that holistic care that they need.”
Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
