RCATX team

Joyce Hefner

Joyce Hefner has worked for Family Eldercare since 1996. She began as Director of Guardianship and Bill Payer services. Currently, she serves as the Director of Housing and Community Services (HCS). As Director of HCS, her responsibilities include program development and expansion; internal and external program monitoring; evaluating and licensing; and billing and contract compliance. HCS includes Home-Based Counseling, Service Coordination (embedded in 12 senior/disabled housing communities), Rainbow Connections ATX, and Healthy Connections Healthy Aging Programs (includes Lifetime Connections Without Walls (LCWW)–a phone-based socialization and learning activity program for home-bound elders and Living Well! Healthy Aging programs offered at senior/disabled housing communities. 

Joyce earned her Master of Science in Social Work with a concentration in Administration and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Hefner regularly participates in numerous community, governmental, and stakeholder planning groups in the Central Texas area.

Cheryl Young

Cheryl received her Bachelor of Social Work from The University of Texas at Austin and worked as a Social Worker at Travis State School and Austin State Hospital prior to going back to school and obtaining a Master of Social Work from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio in 1996. Cheryl has 28+ years post-Masters experience as a medical and clinical social worker in Hospice, home health, and hospital settings in the Austin and central Texas area.

In April 2011 she joined Family Eldercare providing psychotherapeutic counseling for homebound older and disabled adults and caregivers who struggle with issues of life transitions, depression, grief, isolation, and/or anxiety. She currently serves as the Clinical Director and Program Manager for the In Home Counseling program.

In late 2011 as a Co-Leader of the Austin Gay and Lesbian Senior Services (AGLSS) at Family Eldercare, Cheryl co-created and presented training programs addressing the needs and struggles of LGBTQ+ older adults. She has provided and continues to provide these trainings and other educational programs for many community organizations and conferences addressing the mental health and aging issues for older adults in the LGBTQ+ community. In May 2022, Rainbow Connections ATX was founded at Family Eldercare and Cheryl was named the Program Manager.

Cheryl is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with Supervisor designation and has a certificate in Aging from Boston University. She was named 2022 Social Worker of the Year by Greater Austin Social Workers (GASW). “We all know Cheryl as a caring social worker, a huge advocate for the LGBTQIA2+ community and a wonderful colleague who is happy to share her knowledge and experience with anyone who asks.”

In her free time she enjoys supporting University of Texas Longhorns sports, listening to live music, and spending time with her friends, family, and her mini Goldendoodle, Ruby.

World Famous *BOB* 

World Famous *BOB* is the Activities & Programming Specialist as well as co-queerator of Rainbow Connections ATX, a program of Family Eldercare.

A non-binary performing artist and event host that has travelled the globe since 1998, World Famous *BOB* is also an Ultimate Self Confidence coach and fierce advocate for the Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ community with a focus on the inclusion of elders. Their public lectures on confidence have been offered at several universities as well as The Body Love Conference. *BOB* has also been a guest lecturer at NYU on gender as performance for 12 years and was a presenter at the 2023 Creating Change Conference. They are on the advisory board of Qwell and in the 2023 cohort of the Equality of Texas Leaders Program. *BOB* is the proud Mother of The House of Famous and lives in the Pink Poodle Palace with their rescue poodles, kitties, and Husbear.

*BOB* shares that, “Hanging out with older people is like getting a post card from your future and who doesn’t want to read that”? In the Queer community these postcards can save lives. Not only is it imperative that elders in the Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ community be acknowledged as the building blocks of current and future Queer liberation but also as whole people who beyond being a resource desire connection into the world they helped shape.

Social isolation is a measurable conduit to poor physical and mental health. Through multi-generational programming and events through RCATX a real sense of value can be shone on every stage of life. You’re invited to our next event and *BOB* hopes to meet you!

Richard bondi

Richard has a BA in English Literature from the University of Denver and subsequently attended various institutions for post-graduate study. Originally from Denver, Richard lived in Colorado until 1997. Afterwards living in San Francisco, California followed by Arlington, Virginia. Richard has been a resident of Austin since 2003.

Richard retired in 2020 from the Texas Health & Human Service Commission, after working for 42 years in both public and private sectors. In 2022 Richard helped establish Rainbow Connections ATX at Family Eldercare, where he currently serves as the Program Development Lead.

Richard has a long history of being active in various civic and local groups. Currently Richard serves as: Austin LGBT Coalition on Aging Co-Chair, Alzheimer’s Association Capital of Texas Volunteer Trainer, engAGE Travis County Board as President and Treasurer. Richard also serves as the Vice Chair of the City of Austin’s Commission on Aging and the City’s Joint Inclusion Committee.