About us
A care network that started with one shovelled walk.
We are not a facility, an agency or an app. We are roughly 620 background-checked neighbours across three Michigan counties who have agreed to show up on the same day every week.
Our story
It started with a snow shovel.
In February 2016 a storm dropped fourteen inches on Detroit's east side. Renée Whitfield went out to clear her own walk and simply kept going — four houses, then the length of the block.
At the last house Mr. Alvin Pruitt, 84, opened the door in his coat. He had not spoken out loud to another person since the Thursday before. He had soup on the stove and asked whether she wanted a bowl.
She came back the next week without the shovel.
Nine neighbours turned that into a phone tree. The phone tree turned into a schedule taped inside a kitchen cabinet. By 2019 the schedule had sixty names on it and needed insurance, a bank account and a name of its own.
Mr. Pruitt chose the name. He said what the block had been doing was not a service. It was love, and somebody should say so out loud.
Our mission
Love The Elderly exists to end isolation among older adults in Southeast Michigan by pairing them with trained neighbours who bring companionship, practical help and unhurried time — at no cost, for as long as it is wanted.
Our vision
A region where every older adult is known by name on their own street, checked on by someone who is not paid to care, and able to grow old in the home and community they chose.
What we hold to
Five commitments we are willing to be judged on.
Dignity first
Nobody is a case number, a burden or a beneficiary. We knock, we take our shoes off, and we ask before we move anything.
Show up, every time
A missed visit is not a scheduling issue; it is a broken promise to someone who has been let down before. We staff for reliability, not volume.
Nothing about them, without them
Two seats on our board are permanently held by people we serve. Care plans are written at the kitchen table, out loud, with the person present.
Neighbours, not clients
Relationships run both ways. Our volunteers are taught to receive — the soup, the advice, the stories — as carefully as they give.
Joy is essential care
Birthday cake, dominoes, a ride to the casino, the Tigers on the radio. Delight is not a luxury item in a care plan — it is the point.
Show the books
Our budget, our Form 990 and our programme costs are published in full. If you fund this work you are entitled to see every line of it.
Ten winters
How a block became a network.
We have grown slowly on purpose. Every expansion has waited until we could promise the new neighbourhood the same reliability as the first one.
See what it adds up to2016
One shovelled block
Nine neighbours in East English Village start a rotating check-in list for eleven older residents.
2018
The schedule goes formal
Sixty volunteers, three zip codes, and the first written safeguarding policy — drafted by a retired school principal we were visiting.
2019
Incorporated as a 501(c)(3)
Mr. Pruitt names the organisation. We hire our first paid coordinator on a $48,000 budget.
2020
The Warm Line is born
Visits stop overnight. In their place: 22,000 doorstep deliveries and a daily phone call for every single participant.
2022
Home Safety Squad
A donated van, four retired tradespeople, and the first grab bar goes into a bathroom in Highland Park.
2024
Across the county line
Programmes open in Oakland and Macomb. Tech Together launches after participants asked, repeatedly, to see their grandchildren's faces.
2026
1,480 neighbours
Eight programmes, 620 active volunteers, and an office on Woodward with a kettle that is never off.
Our approach
What makes this different from a service.
Same person, same day
We match once and protect that match. The median Love The Elderly friendship is now 2 years and 4 months old.
Matched for who you are
Language, faith, food, football team, walking pace. We have made matches in eleven languages including ASL and Arabic.
No cost, no means test
We never ask for income, insurance or immigration status. If you are 60+ in our service area, you qualify.
We refer out honestly
We are not clinicians. When a need is medical, legal or financial we hand off to partners who are — and we stay on the call.
Our people
A small staff and a very large kitchen table.
Six people are paid. Six hundred and twenty are not. Everyone on this page still takes a weekly visit of their own.
Renée Whitfield
Founder & Executive Director
Retired DPS school administrator. Still visits Thursdays on the block where it started.
Marcus Bell
Director of Programs
Eleven years in community health. Builds every care plan out loud, at the table.
Aisha Haddad
Volunteer Engagement Manager
Runs Saturday training. Has personally matched more than 900 pairs.
Tomás Rivera
Care Line Supervisor
First voice most families hear. Bilingual intake, seven days a week.
Joanne Kekana
Director of Development
Keeps the lights on and the books open. Publishes the budget every quarter.
Danny Osei
Home Safety Lead
Forty years a union carpenter. Installed the first grab bar and the five hundredth.
Board of Directors
Two seats are permanently reserved for programme participants.
| Name | Role | Day job |
|---|---|---|
| Gloria Sandoval | Board Chair | Retired hospital chaplain, Henry Ford Health |
| Dr. Peter Nwachukwu | Vice Chair | Geriatrician, Wayne State University |
| Lena Kowalski | Treasurer | CPA, Kowalski & Associates |
| Amara Bishara | Secretary | Immigration attorney, Dearborn |
| Alvin Pruitt Jr. | Director | Son of our founding neighbour; UAW Local 600 |
| Delores Freeman | Participant Director | Programme participant since 2023, East English Village |
| Walter Ng | Participant Director | Programme participant since 2021, Madison Heights |
We do not work alone
Referral partners across Southeast Michigan.
When a need falls outside what a neighbour can do, we hand off to organisations who do it properly — and we stay involved until the handoff lands.