University City Non-Profit Fosters Senior Connections

Since the early 1970’s, University City resident Suzsanne Singer has worked through the non-profit sector to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable of St. Louis area residents.

Over the past four decades Singer, a psychologist by trade, has concentrated her efforts on helping disturbed teens, drug and alcohol addicts, and the elderly live more full and complete lives. Singer’s early life was defined by more than one hardship. She was born and raised in Vienna, Austria and survived the Nazi occupation of World War II. Singer was also struck with a crippling disease as a child.  She started limping when she was three-years old due to Bovine Tuberculosis, something she wasn’t suppose to be able to recover from.  Through operations and swimming she was able to walk by the time she was in her teens.

Singer’s father was a big influence on her life. He was a university professor who worked with troubled teens. Singer studied at the University of Vienna where she earned a PH.D in Social Psychology and Philology.

Singer immigrated to the United States in 1946 and later served on the faculty at Western Kentucky State College and Oklahoma State University. She married Curtis Singer, a Harvard and St. Louis University graduate who worked at the Human Development Corporation. The couple eventually migrated to St. Louis in 1950 and began taking severely disturbed adolescents into their homes in 1963. They started Therapy and Consultants and Associates, later renamed The Singer Institute, in 1970 to provide assistance for severely disturbed adolescents. The program provided a home and one parent figure for three children; it also had a support staff to intervene in problem situations and a school near the homes for the kids to attend. Singer served as the organization’s chief therapist. The Singer Institute usually managed 16 to 18 cases at one time and operated on a million dollar budget.

Sandra Roeder-Singer, an administrative assistant for the Singer Institute and former daughter-in-law to Suzsanne, has been working with the institute since the 1970’s. She said St. Louis University conducted a 15-month study in 1985 which determined Therapy and Consultants and Associates had a 67.5% success rate in the disturbed adolescent program. The quality of constructive daytime activities and the ability of those in the program to live and work in the community were among the factors considered in the study.  

Many of the teens in the program suffered from drug and alcohol problems and the Singers felt something had to be done about the problem, but they wanted to concentrate on those with drug and alcohol in an older age group. In 1990 the Singer Institute changed its focus and acquired 89 acres of wooded property near the city of Sullivan which became the GreenTree Lodge and Retreat Center. The center offered weekend retreats for individuals in drug treatment in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.

Singer Institute Volunteer Coordinator Ellen Brasunas, a licensed professional counselor and resident of Clayton, started adding her expertise to the Singer Institute in 1990 when still working with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse on issues of co-dependency and substance abuse recovery. She became acquainted with Curtis Singer and was invited to do some workshops at the retreat center. Brasunas continued to work with the organization when it moved away from drug treatment.  Curtis Singer passed away in 1992, and in December of 1998, Suzanne sold the retreat center and moved back to St. Louis. But the Singer Institute would soon find a new mission.

When Singer worked in the retreat she often heard about the fear of having to live in nursing homes. She performed a year of research and found that forming healthy connections was a way of improving the quality of life of the elderly. Singer started the Senior Connections Program in 1999. The program trains what they call “relational volunteers” who visit the elderly in isolated long term care facilities - retirement communities, assisted living communities, and nursing homes. Volunteers commit to spending one hour a week with residents of the communities for a period of one year, but many continue to do it for years.  Volunteers engage in a number of activities with the residents – reading, playing games, or visiting with pets.

Roeder-Singer, a sociologist by trade, has been involved with the organization since 1973. 

“I wanted to do something in the community and I found out about Suzanne and Curtis,” Roeder-Singer said on her early days with the Singer Institute.

Roeder-Singer worked in one of the specially designed schools for disturbed teens and as a teacher and also as a house parent. She can attest to the lives which were touched by the program.

“So many of the graduates of the program, some still in St. Louis and others all over the country, felt they could have been in jail or dead had she (Singer) not been successful with them,”  Roeder-Singer said.

She still remembers the first crop of volunteers they trained for the Senior Connections Program, a group of older people from Kingshighway Baptist Church.

“We placed them at Election Brothers Landsdowne Village and St. Louis Altenheim,” she said. “Since then, we’ve expanded. We have 110 volunteers who are active and a number of other one’s who are on hold right now. We’re in 32 different facilities in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County and we have three people in Jefferson County.”

Like any non-profit, the Singer Institute relies on various fund-raising mechanisms. It raises money through foundations, grants and donations. Last year it was able to raise $66,500. The organization is currently looking for donations and volunteers. The institute has a fund-raising event on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. at the Mary Ryder Home on 4361 Olive, St. where the Build-A-Bear Foundation will present a toy bear to each Senior Connections Volunteer.  

In 2000, Suzsanne Singer suffered a stroke, but that did not stop her work.  Despite confinement to a wheel chair, she has kept Senior Connections thriving. 

The non-profit is run out of Singer’s home in University City.  Senior Connection’s volunteers are trained in the home. Roeder-Singer said being based out of a private residence brings with it the advantage of low overhead.

Singer was named Humanist of the Year in 2005 by the Ethical Society of St. Louis.