They are members of a group that no one would want to join. But they are growing in numbers and political influence.
They are the daughters, sons, spouses and other relatives of vulnerable adults who have been physically or emotionally abused at senior care facilities across Minnesota.
In recent weeks this coalition, known as Elder Voice Family Advocates, has emerged from obscurity to play a central role in early efforts by the administration of Gov. Mark Dayton to reform Minnesota's troubled system for responding to violent crimes and other forms of abuse in senior homes.
Over the past year, its members have blanketed Minnesota legislators with letters, e-mails, phone calls and testimonials highlighting their stories of anguish, including incidents in which loved ones have died, been maimed or traumatized as a result of maltreatment. Last spring, as lawmakers considered budget increases to keep pace with escalating complaints of maltreatment, members of Elder Voice made repeated trips to the State Capitol to describe crimes that were going uninvestigated and unresolved.
Their grass-roots efforts gained new urgency after the publication last month of a five-part Star Tribune series chronicling breakdowns in the state's handling of elder abuse investigations. The report prompted a chorus of legislators to demand reforms, and Dayton this week called for a special work group to quickly produce recommendations for the 2018 Legislature. Elder Voice was chosen to help lead the work group — a remarkable feat for a volunteer-driven organization that still funds its activities by passing a hat at meetings.
"We feel the gentle hands of our loved ones pushing us forward," said Jean Peters, one of a half-dozen Elder Voice members who met with Dayton's top staff on Friday. "Our job is to channel the anger and the sadness that many of us still feel into positive change for vulnerable seniors across this state."
Bright orange socks
Elder Voice's increasingly political role has come as something of a surprise to the group's founders.
The idea for the group came out of a meeting nearly two years ago between Suzanne Scheller, an attorney from Champlin, and Peters, at a forum on elder justice. At the time, Peters had just discovered that her 85-year-old mother had been emotionally abused and ridiculed by a nurse's aide at an assisted-living facility in Edina.